HR: 1340h
AN: SF43A-0781    [Abstracts]
TI: Near-simultaneous Observations of Polar Mesospheric Clouds from the International Space Station and from Orbiting Optical Instruments
AU: * Pettit, D
EM: donald.r.pettit@nasa.gov
AF: NASA Johnson Space Flight Center, NASA Road One, Houston, TX 77058 United States
AU: Rusch, D W
EM: david.rusch@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Campus Box 392, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
AU: Thomas, G E
EM: gary.thomas@lasp.colorado.edu
AF: Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Campus Box 392, Boulder, CO 80309 United States
AU: Merkel, A
EM: merkel@ucar.edu
AF: National Center for Atmospheric Research, P.O. Box 3000, Boulder, CO 80303 United States
AU: Bailey, S M
EM: sbailey@gi.alaska.edu
AF: Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska at Fairbanks, 903 Koyukuk Dr., Fairbanks, AK 99775 United States
AU: Russell, J M
EM: james.russell@hamptonu.edu
AF: Center for Atmospheric Sciences, Hampton University, 23 Tyler St., Hampton, VA 23668 United States
AU: DeLand, M
EM: matthew_deland@ssaihq.com
AF: SSAI, 10210 Greenbelt Rd. Suite 400, Lanham, MD 20706 United States
AB: The orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) carried the spacecraft to latitudes high enough for observations of Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMC). During the PMC southern-hemisphere season 2002-2003, a series of digital images and visual observations were taken over the Antarctic continent of PMC at the sunlit limb. Approximately twenty such observations, available through the ISS LAB window towards the summer pole, revealed the PMC as a distinct narrow scattering layer in the upper mesosphere, often many thousands of kilometers in horizontal expanse. The field of view from the ISS covered a sufficiently wide area of the polar region, that it was possible to co-locate measurements taken by instruments on board unmanned spacecraft in the near vicinity of the Space Station (but taken from a higher altitude). This provided an opportunity to combine accurate limb scans and nadir views of PMC with high-resolution information on the horizontal spatial structure. The SNOE and NOAA-16 and NOAA-17 SBUV/2 instruments obtained 15 orbits per day of PMC measurements at UV wavelengths. In addition, the SABER experiment on board the TIMED satellite obtained temperature profiles in the same vicinity. We will report on the first comparisons of these data, and describe the specific advantages of this unique combination of data.
DE: 0300 ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801)
DE: 0340 Middle atmosphere--composition and chemistry
SC: Special Focus: Advances in Data Acquisition, Management, Analysis and Display [SF]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting