Physics
Scientific paper
May 2002
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002georl..29j..16s&link_type=abstract
Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 29, Issue 10, pp. 16-1, CiteID 1378, DOI 10.1029/2002GL015079
Physics
5
Atmospheric Composition And Structure: Aerosols And Particles (0345, 4801), Atmospheric Composition And Structure: Middle Atmosphere-Constituent Transport And Chemistry (3334), Atmospheric Composition And Structure: Thermosphere-Composition And Chemistry, Atmospheric Composition And Structure: Transmission And Scattering Of Radiation
Scientific paper
We report the unexpected observation of a large hydroxyl (OH) cloud north and east of the United States a day after a space shuttle launch in November, 1994. The Middle Atmosphere High Resolution Spectrograph Investigation (MAHRSI) observed OH(0,0) solar fluorescence near 309 nm while staring toward a tangent altitude of 87 km, where OH can be produced from water vapor photodissociation. The OH(0,0) band has a rotational temperature of 252 +/- 23 K corresponding to an altitude of 110 +/- 3 km, where nearly half of the shuttle's main engine water vapor exhaust is released on ascent. The location of the cloud one day after injection into the atmosphere implies that its average velocity is between 26-40 m/s northward. We also report strong evidence of water ice measured simultaneously along the same line of sight, suggesting that water vapor exhaust is redistributed by condensation and sedimentation.
Englert Christoph R.
Gumbel Jörg
Stevens Michael Hugh
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