HR: 16:00h
AN: SA42B-01 INVITED     [PDF]
TI: Global Characteristics of PMCs From six Years of SNOE Data
AU: * Merkel, A
EM: merkel@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, POB 3000, Boulder, CO 80307 United States
AU: Bailey, S
EM: scott.bailey@gi.alaska.edu
AF: Geophysical Institute and Department of Physics, University of Alaska 903 Koyukuk Dr., Fairbanks, AK 99775 United States
AU: Thomas, G
EM: gary.thomas@colorado.edu
AF: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80303 United States
AU: Carstens, J
EM: carstens@gi.alaska.edu
AF: Geophysical Institute and Department of Physics, University of Alaska 903 Koyukuk Dr., Fairbanks, AK 99775 United States
AU: Garcia, R
EM: rgarcia@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, POB 3000, Boulder, CO 80307 United States
AB: The Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE) satellite has successfully measured ten polar mesospheric cloud (PMC) seasons in its six year lifetime. Because SNOE orbits the Earth 15 times a day with high latitude resolution, it is the first to clearly illustrate the global day-to-day variability of PMCs. This is an advantage over other datasets in that we can look at dynamical influences on PMCs, specifically variations in brightness with a 5-day period. SNOE on average detects 10,000 PMCs per season allowing us to successfully study PMC morphology, PMC altitudes, and seasonal variability in observation frequency and brightness. Although PMCs are arguably an indicator of long term global change, we illustrate that they are highly variable on a day-to-day global scale.
DE: 3332 Mesospheric dynamics
DE: 3334 Middle atmosphere dynamics (0341, 0342)
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
SC: SPA - Aeronomy [SA]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting