Summer mesosphere temperature distribution from wide-angle polarization measurements of the twilight sky

Abstract

The paper contains the results of wide-angle polarization camera (WAPC) measurements of the twilight sky background conducted in summer 2011 and 2012 at 55.2°N, 37.5°E, southwards from Moscow. The method of single scattering separation based on polarization data is suggested. The obtained components of scattering matrixes show the domination of Rayleigh scattering in the mesosphere for all observation days. It made possible to retrieve the altitude distribution of temperature in the mesosphere. The results are compared with the temperature data by TIMED/SABER and EOS Aura/MLS instruments for nearby dates and locations.

Noctilucent cloud polarimetry: Twilight measurements in a wide range of scattering angles

“…Since we are mainly interested in the angle dependence of the degree of polarization of light scattered by NLCs, we use a different coordinate system during data processing than the one in (Ugolnikov, Maslov, 2013b). This is the polar coordinate system shown in one WAPC image with NLCs in Figure 2b.…”

Mesosphere light scattering depolarization during the Perseids activity epoch by wide-angle polarization camera measurements

“…If we consider the layer baseline altitudes h B less than dust layer altitudes, than the polarization characteristics q 0 will fall with h B rise due to faster decrease of Rayleigh scattering contribution, the value of dq 0 /dh B will be negative. Total single scattering intensity will decrease with h B rise slower than by Boltzmann law, and the temperature defined by the method (Ugolnikov and Maslov, 2013b) will be overestimated. Fig.5 shows the diagram of these values (dq 0 /dh B and T) for 70 km.…”

Proceedings of the 48-th International student's conferences "Physics of Space"

“…Это видно на примере центральных районов России на рис. 1 и 4, где показаны средние значения температуры в июне и июле по спутниковым данным TIMED/SABER [10], EOS Aura/MLS [37], а также по данным фотометрии и поляриметрии сумеречного неба методом, разработанным автором настоящей работы [38]. Трендов роста содержания водяного пара на высоте 82 км, по данным EOS Aura/MLS, также не обнаруживается.…”