HR: 08:44h
AN: SA51C-03    [Abstracts]
TI: Interpretation of Hydroxyl Airglow Temperatures for Global Change Trends in the Mesosphere
AU: * Espy, P J
EM: pje@bas.ac.uk
AF: The British Antarctic Survey, NERC, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0ET, United Kingdom
AU: Faloon, K
EM: khfa@bas.ac.uk
AB: Traditionally, the hydroxyl (OH) night airglow has been measured to infer the neutral temperature near 87 km, the nominal height of the OH emission. This atmospheric region has been predicted to show appreciable trends associated with the effects of anthropogenic climate change, but is also subject to solar and wave forcing. Although several long-term data sets of mesospheric temperature are available, these have yielded conflicting evidence for temperature trends. We have examined high-latitude hydroxyl airglow temperature data for solar forcing and residual trends, and have used a steady-state photo-chemical model to interpret the results. We find that the observed hydroxyl temperature time-series depends critically on the atomic-oxygen concentration profile and the particular OH band being observed. We will present the model results with prescribed temperature trends associated with solar forcing and climate change, and will identify the hydroxyl airglow response to these changes for different bands. A brief survey of trends observed using different hydroxyl airglow bands will be presented to support the model results.
DE: 0310 Airglow and aurora
DE: 0340 Middle atmosphere: composition and chemistry
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly