Polar Mesosphere Summer Echoes and Their Relation to Noctilucent Clouds: Towards a Quantitative Understanding (Invited)

Physics

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[0305] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Aerosols And Particles, [0340] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Middle Atmosphere: Composition And Chemistry, [1650] Global Change / Solar Variability, [2461] Ionosphere / Plasma Interactions With Dust And Aerosols

Scientific paper

More than 10 years ago, simultaneous and common volume radar and lidar observations of polar mesosphere summer echoes (PMSE) and noctilucent clouds (NLC) provided the first compelling evidence of their joint origin. Today, it is well established that both phenomena are different observational evidence of mesospheric ice clouds. However, while the light scattering mechanism leading to NLC is essentially understood, a similarly robust quantitative understanding of PMSE has long been elusive. This paper starts with reporting the results of correlative studies of PMSE and NLC based on a very large data set (several ten thousands of simultaneous and common volume observations) collected over the years with the ALOMAR wind radar and the ALOMAR RMR lidar in Northern Norway complemented by results obtained with the Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE) on the AIM satellite. We then continue describing recent progress made in the quantitative understanding of PMSE based on observations of these echoes using well separated frequencies in the VHF and UHF. Today, such observations even allow the derivation of microphysical parameters like ice particle radii which are in close agreement with independent estimates from SOFIE. We will further discuss cases where NLC were observed with and without the presence of PMSE and demonstrate that all these cases can now be understood in a quantitative manner. Finally, this understanding will be applied to observed long term variations of PMSE which are recognized of being substantially different from similar NLC observations.

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