HR: 11:50h
AN: SA22A-07    [Abstracts]
TI: A Quantitative Comparison of the Polar Mesospheric Cloud Mass Between 1998-2003: SNOE vs. SBUV
AU: * Stevens, M H
EM: michael.stevens@nrl.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, Code 7641, Washington, DC 20375 United States
AU: Englert, C R
EM: christoph.englert@nrl.navy.mil
AF: Naval Research Laboratory, Code 7641, Washington, DC 20375 United States
AU: Bailey, S M
EM: sbailey@gi.alaska.edu
AF: Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska, Fairbanks, AK 99775 United States
AU: DeLand, M T
EM: matthew.deland@ssaihq.com
AF: Matthew DeLand, SSAI, Lanham, MD 20706 United States
AB: Polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) normally appear at high latitudes in the summer near 83 km and are believed to nucleate on sub-nanometer size dust particles. PMCs are known to vary in response to solar cycle changes and it was recently shown that they can form from space shuttle exhaust plumes injected into the lower thermosphere. The Student Nitric Oxide Explorer (SNOE) and the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV) instruments were simultaneously measuring PMCs in both hemispheres between 1998-2003. These experiments are unique because they can yield insight to daily PMC variability around the entire polar region with season, latitude, and solar cycle. A quantitative comparison of the two datasets is valuable for constraining models that use the solar cycle forcing of the ambient atmosphere to drive PMC variability and for assessing the impact of space traffic on the long-term (>10 year) PMC record. In this study, we present the first comparison of the total PMC ice mass observed by SBUV and SNOE. We will quantify the solar cycle effects on the ice mass using both datasets and compare the total ice mass observed with that available from space traffic. We will consider the viewing geometries and sensitivity of each instrument and account for the lighting conditions specific to each cloud observation. Since we have no direct information on the ice particle sizes, we will determine the impact on the results using a variety of distributions inferred from previous modeling and experimental studies of PMCs.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906)
DE: 0310 Airglow and aurora
DE: 0319 Cloud optics
DE: 0321 Cloud/radiation interaction
DE: 0360 Radiation: transmission and scattering
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005