On Recent Interannual Variability of the Arctic Winter Mesosphere: Implications for Tracer Descent

Observations from the Sounding of the Atmosphere with Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) experiment on the NASA/Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite show an unusual vertical displacement of the winter Arctic stratopause in 2006 with zonal mean temperatures...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Siskind, David E., Eckermann, Stephen D., Coy, Lawrence, McCormack, John P., Randall, Cora E.
Other Authors: NAVAL RESEARCH LAB WASHINGTON DC
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: 2007
Subjects:
Atmospheric Physics
Mechanics
*MESOSPHERE
*ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES
*RADIOMETRY
*ATMOSPHERIC SOUNDING
*GRAVITY WAVES
EMISSION
THERMOSPHERE
TEMPERATURE
WINTER
MEAN
ARCTIC REGIONS
STRATOSPHERE
UPPER ATMOSPHERE
ENERGETIC PROPERTIES
BROADBAND
DISPLACEMENT
DYNAMICS
REPRINTS
IONOSPHERE
*ATMOSPHERE WITH BROADBAND EMISSION RADIOMETRY
*TRACER DESCENT
SABER(ATMOSPHERE WITH BROADBAND EMISSION RADIOMETRY)
TIMED(THERMOSPHERE IONOSPHERE MESOSPHERE ENERGETICS AND DYNAMICS)
VERTICAL DISPLACEMENT
Arctic
Online Access:http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA467553
http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA467553
Description
Summary:Observations from the Sounding of the Atmosphere with Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) experiment on the NASA/Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite show an unusual vertical displacement of the winter Arctic stratopause in 2006 with zonal mean temperatures at 0.01 hPa (~78 km) exceeding 250 K. By contrast, at the conventional stratopause location near 0.7 hPa (~50 km), temperatures were unusually cold. Simulations with the NOGAPS-ALPHA model suggest that these are coupled to an unusually warm and disturbed lower stratosphere that filtered out many of the gravity waves that normally break at and above 50 km. The model also shows that downward transport in the 2006 Arctic vortex was enhanced relative to 2005. These results might explain observations of enhanced upper atmospheric NO descending to the upper stratosphere in 2006 and highlights the importance of gravity waves in modulating the coupling of the upper atmosphere with the stratosphere. The original document contains color images. Pub. in Geophysical Research Letters, v34 pl09806 1-5, 2007.

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