Climatology of Polar Mesospheric Clouds

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Abstract
The ultraviolet spectrometer on board the Solar Mesophere Explorer Satellite has measured solar radiation scattered from a diffuse and patchy layer of material near the summer polar mesopause, We call this scattering layer polar mesospheric clouds (PMC) and present here a first climatology of this phenomenon covering three years (six summer seasons). We address these general questions: How bright are PMC and how frequently do they occur in space and time? Are there year-to-year or hemisphere-to-hemisphere differences in PMC seasons? We find that the brightest PMC are found right where they occur most frequently-above 70°C-75°C in latitude and in a season of 60 to 80 days duration centered about the peak which occurs about 20 days after the summer solstice. This holds true for both hemispheres. We find variability on time waves from day-to-day to year-to- year, averaging over large time and space scales does, however, reveal a basic underlying symmetry. A major finding is that for three years (six... Abstract The ultraviolet spectrometer on board the Solar Mesophere Explorer Satellite has measured solar radiation scattered from a diffuse and patchy layer of material near the summer polar mesopause, We call this scattering layer polar mesospheric clouds (PMC) and present here a first climatology of this phenomenon covering three years (six summer seasons). We address these general questions: How bright are PMC and how frequently do they occur in space and time? Are there year-to-year or hemisphere-to-hemisphere differences in PMC seasons? We find that the brightest PMC are found right where they occur most frequently-above 70°C-75°C in latitude and in a season of 60 to 80 days duration centered about the peak which occurs about 20 days after the summer solstice. This holds true for both hemispheres. We find variability on time waves from day-to-day to year-to- year, averaging over large time and space scales does, however, reveal a basic underlying symmetry. A major finding is that for three years (six...

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