Simulation study for ground-based Ku-band microwave observations of ozone and hydroxyl in the polar middle atmosphere
The Ku-band microwave frequencies (10.70–14.25 GHz) overlap emissions from ozone (O3) at 11.072 GHz and hydroxyl radical (OH) at 13.441 GHz. These important chemical species in the polar middle atmosphere respond strongly to high-latitude geomagnetic activity associated with space weather. Atmospher...
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ftnerc:oai:nora.nerc.ac.uk:521021 2023-05-15T13:49:35+02:00 Simulation study for ground-based Ku-band microwave observations of ozone and hydroxyl in the polar middle atmosphere Newnham, David Clilverd, Mark Kosch, Michael Verronen, Pekka T 2019-03-01 text http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/521021/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/521021/1/amt-12-1375-2019.pdf https://www.atmos-meas-tech.net/12/1375/2019/ en eng https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/521021/1/amt-12-1375-2019.pdf Newnham, David orcid:0000-0001-8422-1289 Clilverd, Mark orcid:0000-0002-7388-1529 Kosch, Michael; Verronen, Pekka T. 2019 Simulation study for ground-based Ku-band microwave observations of ozone and hydroxyl in the polar middle atmosphere. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 12 (2). 1375-1392. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1375-2019 <https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1375-2019> cc_by_4 CC-BY Publication - Article PeerReviewed 2019 ftnerc https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1375-2019 2023-02-04T19:47:06Z The Ku-band microwave frequencies (10.70–14.25 GHz) overlap emissions from ozone (O3) at 11.072 GHz and hydroxyl radical (OH) at 13.441 GHz. These important chemical species in the polar middle atmosphere respond strongly to high-latitude geomagnetic activity associated with space weather. Atmospheric model calculations predict that energetic electron precipitation (EEP) driven by magnetospheric substorms produces large changes in polar mesospheric O3 and OH. The EEP typically peaks at geomagnetic latitudes of ∼65∘ and evolves rapidly with time longitudinally and over the geomagnetic latitude range 60–80∘. Previous atmospheric modelling studies have shown that during substorms OH abundance can increase by more than an order of magnitude at 64–84 km and mesospheric O3 losses can exceed 50 %. In this work, an atmospheric simulation and retrieval study has been performed to determine the requirements for passive microwave radiometers capable of measuring diurnal variations in O3 and OH profiles from high-latitude Northern Hemisphere and Antarctic locations to verify model predictions. We show that, for a 11.072 GHz radiometer making 6 h spectral measurements with 10 kHz frequency resolution and root-mean-square baseline noise of 1 mK, O3 could be profiled over 8×10−4–0.22 hPa (∼98–58 km) with 10–17 km height resolution and ∼1 ppmv uncertainty. For the equivalent 13.441 GHz measurements with vertical sensor polarisation, OH could be profiled over 3×10−3–0.29 hPa (∼90–56 km) with 10–17 km height resolution and ∼3 ppbv uncertainty. The proposed observations would be highly applicable to studies of EEP, atmospheric dynamics, planetary-scale circulation, chemical transport, and the representation of these processes in polar and global climate models. Such observations would provide a relatively low-cost alternative to increasingly sparse satellite measurements of the polar middle atmosphere, extending long-term data records and also providing “ground truth” calibration data. Article in Journal/Newspaper Antarc* Antarctic Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive Antarctic Atmospheric Measurement Techniques 12 2 1375 1392 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Natural Environment Research Council: NERC Open Research Archive |
op_collection_id |
ftnerc |
language |
English |
description |
The Ku-band microwave frequencies (10.70–14.25 GHz) overlap emissions from ozone (O3) at 11.072 GHz and hydroxyl radical (OH) at 13.441 GHz. These important chemical species in the polar middle atmosphere respond strongly to high-latitude geomagnetic activity associated with space weather. Atmospheric model calculations predict that energetic electron precipitation (EEP) driven by magnetospheric substorms produces large changes in polar mesospheric O3 and OH. The EEP typically peaks at geomagnetic latitudes of ∼65∘ and evolves rapidly with time longitudinally and over the geomagnetic latitude range 60–80∘. Previous atmospheric modelling studies have shown that during substorms OH abundance can increase by more than an order of magnitude at 64–84 km and mesospheric O3 losses can exceed 50 %. In this work, an atmospheric simulation and retrieval study has been performed to determine the requirements for passive microwave radiometers capable of measuring diurnal variations in O3 and OH profiles from high-latitude Northern Hemisphere and Antarctic locations to verify model predictions. We show that, for a 11.072 GHz radiometer making 6 h spectral measurements with 10 kHz frequency resolution and root-mean-square baseline noise of 1 mK, O3 could be profiled over 8×10−4–0.22 hPa (∼98–58 km) with 10–17 km height resolution and ∼1 ppmv uncertainty. For the equivalent 13.441 GHz measurements with vertical sensor polarisation, OH could be profiled over 3×10−3–0.29 hPa (∼90–56 km) with 10–17 km height resolution and ∼3 ppbv uncertainty. The proposed observations would be highly applicable to studies of EEP, atmospheric dynamics, planetary-scale circulation, chemical transport, and the representation of these processes in polar and global climate models. Such observations would provide a relatively low-cost alternative to increasingly sparse satellite measurements of the polar middle atmosphere, extending long-term data records and also providing “ground truth” calibration data. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Newnham, David Clilverd, Mark Kosch, Michael Verronen, Pekka T |
spellingShingle |
Newnham, David Clilverd, Mark Kosch, Michael Verronen, Pekka T Simulation study for ground-based Ku-band microwave observations of ozone and hydroxyl in the polar middle atmosphere |
author_facet |
Newnham, David Clilverd, Mark Kosch, Michael Verronen, Pekka T |
author_sort |
Newnham, David |
title |
Simulation study for ground-based Ku-band microwave observations of ozone and hydroxyl in the polar middle atmosphere |
title_short |
Simulation study for ground-based Ku-band microwave observations of ozone and hydroxyl in the polar middle atmosphere |
title_full |
Simulation study for ground-based Ku-band microwave observations of ozone and hydroxyl in the polar middle atmosphere |
title_fullStr |
Simulation study for ground-based Ku-band microwave observations of ozone and hydroxyl in the polar middle atmosphere |
title_full_unstemmed |
Simulation study for ground-based Ku-band microwave observations of ozone and hydroxyl in the polar middle atmosphere |
title_sort |
simulation study for ground-based ku-band microwave observations of ozone and hydroxyl in the polar middle atmosphere |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/521021/ https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/521021/1/amt-12-1375-2019.pdf https://www.atmos-meas-tech.net/12/1375/2019/ |
geographic |
Antarctic |
geographic_facet |
Antarctic |
genre |
Antarc* Antarctic |
genre_facet |
Antarc* Antarctic |
op_relation |
https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/521021/1/amt-12-1375-2019.pdf Newnham, David orcid:0000-0001-8422-1289 Clilverd, Mark orcid:0000-0002-7388-1529 Kosch, Michael; Verronen, Pekka T. 2019 Simulation study for ground-based Ku-band microwave observations of ozone and hydroxyl in the polar middle atmosphere. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques, 12 (2). 1375-1392. https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1375-2019 <https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1375-2019> |
op_rights |
cc_by_4 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-12-1375-2019 |
container_title |
Atmospheric Measurement Techniques |
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12 |
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2 |
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1375 |
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1392 |
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