Mesospheric temperatures from observations of the  hydroxyl (6–2) emission above Davis, Antarctica: A comparison of rotational and Doppler measurements

Innis, J. L.; Phillips, Frances; Burns, G. B.; Greet, P. A.; French, John; Dyson, P. L.

doi:10.5194/angeo-19-359-2001

Cited by 7 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…This is consistent with previous observations using ground-based spectrometers or interferometers (e.g. Innis et al, 2001;Oberheide et al, 2006;French and Mulligan, 2010;Dyrland et al, 2010). However, it must be pointed out that the NOTCam measurements cover a very short time span and may be affected by gravity-wave perturbations of the climatological temperature gradient of the atmosphere represented by NRLMSISE.…”

Section: Temperature Gradientsupporting

confidence: 80%

Optimizing hydroxyl airglow retrievals from long-slit astronomical spectroscopic observations

et al. 2017

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Abstract. Astronomical spectroscopic observations from ground-based telescopes contain background emission lines from the terrestrial atmosphere's airglow. In the near infrared, this background is composed mainly of emission from Meinel bands of hydroxyl (OH), which is produced in highly excited vibrational states by reduction of ozone near 90 km. This emission contains a wealth of information on the chemical and dynamical state of the Earth's atmosphere. However, observation strategies and data reduction processes are usually optimized to minimize the influence of these features on the astronomical spectrum. Here we discuss a measurement technique to optimize the extraction of the OH airglow signal itself from routine J-, H-, and K-band long-slit astronomical spectroscopic observations. As an example, we use data recorded from a point-source observation by the Nordic Optical Telescope's intermediate-resolution spectrograph, which has a spatial resolution of approximately 100 m at the airglow layer. Emission spectra from the OH vibrational manifold from v = 9 down to v = 3, with signal-to-noise ratios up to 280, have been extracted from 10.8 s integrations. Rotational temperatures representative of the background atmospheric temperature near 90 km, the mesosphere and lower thermosphere region, can be fitted to the OH rotational lines with an accuracy of around 0.7 K. Using this measurement and analysis technique, we derive a rotational temperature distribution with v that agrees with atmospheric model conditions and the preponderance of previous work. We discuss the derived rotational temperatures from the different vibrational bands and highlight the potential for both the archived and future observations, which are at unprecedented spatial and temporal resolutions, to contribute toward the resolution of long-standing problems in atmospheric physics.

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Section: Temperature Gradientsupporting

confidence: 80%

Optimizing hydroxyl airglow retrievals from long-slit astronomical spectroscopic observations

et al. 2017

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“…Mesospheric temperature measurements at high Antarctic latitudes are limited in space and time. [ Hernandez et al , 1992a, 1992b, 1993; Sivjee and Walterscheid , 1994; Greet et al , 1994, 1998; Warren et al , 1997; Inis et al , 2001; Kawahara et al , 2002; Pan et al , 2002]. With the exception of the summertime rocket measurements by Lubken et al [1999], all other measurements have been made by optical means and refer to the polar night only.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climatology of the upper mesosphere temperature above South Pole (90°S): Mesospheric cooling during 2002

Hernández

2003

Geophysical Research Letters

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Polar mesospheric temperature measurements obtained above South Pole from 1991 through 2002 are shown, and their long‐term behavior ‐climatology‐ has been deduced. The variation of this temperature during the polar night shows an annual amplitude of 14 K about the mean yearly value. A strong and highly significant correlation is found between the mean yearly temperature and the solar activity ‐expressed as the F10.7 flux‐, giving a 13 K change per 100 unit F10.7 change. The mean measured 2002 polar night temperatures are about 35 K cooler than the mean for the previous 11 years and well outside their excursions about this mean. This observed mesospheric cooling is in keeping with the disturbed lower atmosphere reported for this period. Other effects from the latter include both a smaller austral ozone depletion hole than has been recorded in previous years and higher than average minimum temperatures in the south polar region. The observed mesospheric cooling resembles the cooling observed at Northern midlatitudes during stratospheric warmings.

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“…This would affect the atmospheric temperatures fitted to either the Q-branch or a combination of the P-, Q-, and R-branches. Thus, temperature determinations using the Q-branch lines and existing tabulated transition probabilities will lead to artificial inconsistencies between rotational and translational temperatures [20,21].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the other hand, Fabry-Pérot interferometer observations at high enough spectral resolution to observe the Doppler line shape can be used to compare kinetic and rotational temperatures in order to quantify the degree of non-thermalization [19]. However, such observations have restricted free-spectral-range, limiting such high-resolution spectra to observations of the closely spaced rotational structure of the Q-branch for rotational temperature determinations [20,21]. The results of French et al [15] and Pendleton and Taylor [16] for the (6,2) transition highlight the need for improved Q-branch transition probabilities for all the OH Meinel vibration-rotation transitions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Airglow Derived Measurements of Q-Branch Transition Probabilities for Several Hydroxyl Meinel Bands

et al. 2019

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Spectroscopic measurements of the hydroxyl (OH) airglow emissions are often used to infer neutral temperatures near the mesopause. Correct Einstein coefficients for the various transitions in the OH airglow are needed to calculate accurate temperatures. However, studies from some studys showed experimentally and theoretically that the most commonly used Einstein spontaneous emission transition probabilities for the Q-branch of the OH Meinel (6,2) transition are overestimated. Extending their work to several Δv = 2 and 3 transitions from v′ = 3 to 9, we have determined Einstein coefficients for the first four Q-branch rotational lines. These have been derived from high resolution, high signal to noise spectroscopic observations of the OH airglow in the night sky from the Nordic Optical Telescope. The Q-branch Einstein coefficients calculated from these spectra show that values currently tabulated in the HITRAN database overestimate many of the Q-branch transition probabilities. The implications for atmospheric temperatures derived from OH Q-branch measurements are discussed.

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Mesospheric temperatures from observations of the hydroxyl (6–2) emission above Davis, Antarctica: A comparison of rotational and Doppler measurements

Cited by 7 publications

References 28 publications

Optimizing hydroxyl airglow retrievals from long-slit astronomical spectroscopic observations

Optimizing hydroxyl airglow retrievals from long-slit astronomical spectroscopic observations

Climatology of the upper mesosphere temperature above South Pole (90°S): Mesospheric cooling during 2002

Airglow Derived Measurements of Q-Branch Transition Probabilities for Several Hydroxyl Meinel Bands

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