HR: 0800h
AN: SA21A-0260    [Abstracts]
TI: Odin/OSIRIS PMC properties in 2007 in context with the AIM observations
AU: * Petelina, S V
EM: s.petelina@latrobe.edu.au
AF: La Trobe University, Bundoora Campus, Melbourne, VIC 3086, Australia
AU: von Savigny, C
EM: csavigny@iup.physik.uni-bremen.de
AF: University of Bremen, Otto-Hahn-Allee 1, Bremen, 28334, Germany
AU: Llewellyn, E J
EM: edward.llewellyn@usask.ca
AF: University of Saskatchewan, 116 Science Place, Saskatoon, SK s7n5e2, Canada
AB: The Optical Spectrograph and InfraRed Imager System (OSIRIS) instrument on the Odin satellite has observed Polar Mesospheric Clouds (PMCs) in both hemispheres since November, 2001. OSIRIS measures the limb- scattered solar radiance between 280 and 810 nm with ~1 nm resolution and this allows PMC particle size retrievals from the UV spectra at 290-305. The sensitivity of the limb-scattering technique employed by OSIRIS and high instrument's signal-to-noise ratio at PMC altitudes also permits the detection of clouds that are only 20% brighter than the corresponding Rayleigh background. This presents a unique opportunity to study PMCs at middle and low latitudes. In this work, PMC properties measured by OSIRIS in 2007 are presented in context with the AIM mesospheric observations during the same time period. OSIRIS PMC occurrence, brightness, altitudes, and particles sizes are analysed in the same latitude region as AIM measurements and also compared to the same parameters measured at other latitudes for different seasons in the northern and southern hemisphere.
DE: 0305 Aerosols and particles (0345, 4801, 4906)
DE: 0319 Cloud optics
DE: 0320 Cloud physics and chemistry
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting