Articles | Volume 16, issue 8
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5021-2016
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-5021-2016
© Author(s) 2016. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Research article
| 
22 Apr 2016
Research article |
| 22 Apr 2016
Comparison of VLT/X-shooter OH and O2 rotational temperatures with consideration of TIMED/SABER emission and temperature profiles
Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25/8, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Wolfgang Kausch
Department of Astrophysics, University of Vienna, Türkenschanzstrasse 17, 1180 Vienna, Austria
Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25/8, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Stefan Kimeswenger
Instituto de Astronomía, Universidad Católica del Norte, Avenida Angamos 0610, Antofagasta, Chile
Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25/8, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Stefanie Unterguggenberger
Institute for Astro- and Particle Physics, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstr. 25/8, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
Amy M. Jones
Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics, Karl-Schwarzschild-Str. 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
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Stefan Noll, John M. C. Plane, Wuhu Feng, Konstantinos S. Kalogerakis, Wolfgang Kausch, Carsten Schmidt, Michael Bittner, and Stefan Kimeswenger
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The Earth's nighttime radiation in the range from the near-UV to the near-IR mainly originates between 75 and 105 km and consists of lines of different species, which are important indicators of the chemistry and dynamics at these altitudes. Based on astronomical spectra, we have characterised the structure and variability of a pseudo-continuum of a high number of faint lines and discovered a new emission process in the near-IR. By means of simulations, we identified HO2 as the likely emitter.
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Line emission from hydroxyl (OH) molecules at altitudes of about 90 km strongly contributes to the Earth's night-sky brightness and is therefore used as an important indicator of atmospheric chemistry and dynamics. However, interpreting the measurements can be ambiguous since necessary molecular parameters and the internal state of OH are not well known. Based on high-quality spectral data, we investigated these issues and found solutions for a better understanding of the OH line intensities.
Konstantinos S. Kalogerakis, Daniel Matsiev, Philip C. Cosby, James A. Dodd, Stefano Falcinelli, Jonas Hedin, Alexander A. Kutepov, Stefan Noll, Peter A. Panka, Constantin Romanescu, and Jérôme E. Thiebaud
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The question of whether mesospheric rotational population distributions of vibrationally excited OH are in equilibrium with the local kinetic temperature has been debated over several decades. We examine the relationship of multi-quantum relaxation pathways with the behavior exhibited by OH(v) rotational population distributions and find that the effective rotational temperatures of mesospheric OH(v) deviate from local thermodynamic equilibrium for all observed vibrational levels.
Stefanie Unterguggenberger, Stefan Noll, Wuhu Feng, John M. C. Plane, Wolfgang Kausch, Stefan Kimeswenger, Amy Jones, and Sabine Moehler
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This study focuses on the analysis of astronomical medium-resolution spectra from the VLT in Chile to measure airglow pseudo-continuum emission of FeO in the optical regime. Compared to OH or Na emissions, this emission is difficult to measure. Using 3.5 years of spectroscopic data, we found annual and semi-annual variations of the FeO emission. Furthermore, we used WACCM to determine the quantum yield of the FeO-producing Fe + O3 reaction in the atmosphere, which has not been done before.
S. Noll, W. Kausch, S. Kimeswenger, S. Unterguggenberger, and A. M. Jones
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We discuss a high-quality data set of simultaneous observations of 25 OH bands with an astronomical echelle spectrograph. These data allowed us to analyse band-dependent OH populations and temperatures. In particular, we could find different non-LTE contributions to OH rotational temperatures depending on band, line set, and observing time. This is critical for mesopause studies that use these temperatures as a proxy of the true temperatures.
Stefan Noll, John M. C. Plane, Wuhu Feng, Konstantinos S. Kalogerakis, Wolfgang Kausch, Carsten Schmidt, Michael Bittner, and Stefan Kimeswenger
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The Earth's nighttime radiation in the range from the near-UV to the near-IR mainly originates between 75 and 105 km and consists of lines of different species, which are important indicators of the chemistry and dynamics at these altitudes. Based on astronomical spectra, we have characterised the structure and variability of a pseudo-continuum of a high number of faint lines and discovered a new emission process in the near-IR. By means of simulations, we identified HO2 as the likely emitter.
Stefan Noll, Holger Winkler, Oleg Goussev, and Bastian Proxauf
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Line emission from hydroxyl (OH) molecules at altitudes of about 90 km strongly contributes to the Earth's night-sky brightness and is therefore used as an important indicator of atmospheric chemistry and dynamics. However, interpreting the measurements can be ambiguous since necessary molecular parameters and the internal state of OH are not well known. Based on high-quality spectral data, we investigated these issues and found solutions for a better understanding of the OH line intensities.
Konstantinos S. Kalogerakis, Daniel Matsiev, Philip C. Cosby, James A. Dodd, Stefano Falcinelli, Jonas Hedin, Alexander A. Kutepov, Stefan Noll, Peter A. Panka, Constantin Romanescu, and Jérôme E. Thiebaud
Ann. Geophys., 36, 13–24, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-13-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-13-2018, 2018
Short summary
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The question of whether mesospheric rotational population distributions of vibrationally excited OH are in equilibrium with the local kinetic temperature has been debated over several decades. We examine the relationship of multi-quantum relaxation pathways with the behavior exhibited by OH(v) rotational population distributions and find that the effective rotational temperatures of mesospheric OH(v) deviate from local thermodynamic equilibrium for all observed vibrational levels.
Stefanie Unterguggenberger, Stefan Noll, Wuhu Feng, John M. C. Plane, Wolfgang Kausch, Stefan Kimeswenger, Amy Jones, and Sabine Moehler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 4177–4187, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-4177-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-4177-2017, 2017
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This study focuses on the analysis of astronomical medium-resolution spectra from the VLT in Chile to measure airglow pseudo-continuum emission of FeO in the optical regime. Compared to OH or Na emissions, this emission is difficult to measure. Using 3.5 years of spectroscopic data, we found annual and semi-annual variations of the FeO emission. Furthermore, we used WACCM to determine the quantum yield of the FeO-producing Fe + O3 reaction in the atmosphere, which has not been done before.
S. Noll, W. Kausch, S. Kimeswenger, S. Unterguggenberger, and A. M. Jones
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We discuss a high-quality data set of simultaneous observations of 25 OH bands with an astronomical echelle spectrograph. These data allowed us to analyse band-dependent OH populations and temperatures. In particular, we could find different non-LTE contributions to OH rotational temperatures depending on band, line set, and observing time. This is critical for mesopause studies that use these temperatures as a proxy of the true temperatures.
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Subject: Radiation | Research Activity: Remote Sensing | Altitude Range: Mesosphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
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OH level populations and accuracies of Einstein-A coefficients from hundreds of measured lines
Global nighttime atomic oxygen abundances from GOMOS hydroxyl airglow measurements in the mesopause region
Technical note: Bimodality in mesospheric OH rotational population distributions and implications for temperature measurements
How long do satellites need to overlap? Evaluation of climate data stability from overlapping satellite records
Resolving the mesospheric nighttime 4.3 µm emission puzzle: comparison of the CO2(ν3) and OH(ν) emission models
TEMIS UV product validation using NILU-UV ground-based measurements in Thessaloniki, Greece
OH populations and temperatures from simultaneous spectroscopic observations of 25 bands
CO2(ν2)-O quenching rate coefficient derived from coincidental SABER/TIMED and Fort Collins lidar observations of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere
Relativistic electron beams above thunderclouds
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The paper focuses on remote sensing of the lowermost part of the ionosphere (D region) between ca. 50 and 90 km altitude, which overlaps widely with the mesosphere. We present a climatology of electron density over northern Norway, covering solar-maximum and solar-minimum conditions (2014–2022). Excluding detected energetic particle precipitation events, we derived a quiet-profile climatology. We also found a spring–fall asymmetry, while a symmetric solar zenith angle dependence was expected.
W. John R. French, Frank J. Mulligan, and Andrew R. Klekociuk
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In this study, we analyse 24 years of atmospheric temperatures from the mesopause region (~87 km altitude) derived from ground-based spectrometer observations of hydroxyl airglow at Davis station, Antarctica (68° S, 78° E). These data are used to quantify the effect of the solar cycle and the long-term trend due to increasing greenhouse gas emissions on the atmosphere at this level. A record-low winter-average temperature is reported for 2018 and comparisons are made with satellite observations.
Stefan Noll, Holger Winkler, Oleg Goussev, and Bastian Proxauf
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Line emission from hydroxyl (OH) molecules at altitudes of about 90 km strongly contributes to the Earth's night-sky brightness and is therefore used as an important indicator of atmospheric chemistry and dynamics. However, interpreting the measurements can be ambiguous since necessary molecular parameters and the internal state of OH are not well known. Based on high-quality spectral data, we investigated these issues and found solutions for a better understanding of the OH line intensities.
Qiuyu Chen, Martin Kaufmann, Yajun Zhu, Jilin Liu, Ralf Koppmann, and Martin Riese
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Atomic oxygen is one of the most important trace species in the mesopause region. A common technique to derive it from satellite measurements is to measure airglow emissions involved in the photochemistry of oxygen. In this work, hydroxyl nightglow measured by the GOMOS instrument on Envisat is used to derive a 10-year dataset of atomic oxygen in the middle and upper atmosphere. Annual and semiannual oscillations are observed in the data. The new data are consistent with various other datasets.
Konstantinos S. Kalogerakis
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Light emission from energetic hydroxyl radical, OH*, is a prominent feature in spectra of the night sky. It is routinely used to determine the temperature of the atmosphere near 90 km. This note shows that the common practice of using only a few emission features from low rotational excitation to determine rotational temperatures does not account for the bimodality of the OH population distributions and can lead to large systematic errors.
Elizabeth C. Weatherhead, Jerald Harder, Eduardo A. Araujo-Pradere, Greg Bodeker, Jason M. English, Lawrence E. Flynn, Stacey M. Frith, Jeffrey K. Lazo, Peter Pilewskie, Mark Weber, and Thomas N. Woods
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Peter A. Panka, Alexander A. Kutepov, Konstantinos S. Kalogerakis, Diego Janches, James M. Russell, Ladislav Rezac, Artem G. Feofilov, Martin G. Mlynczak, and Erdal Yiğit
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Recently, theoretical and laboratory studies have suggested an additional
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mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). We show that new mechanism brings
modelled 4.3 μm emissions very close to the SABER/TIMED measurements. This
renders new opportunities for the application of the CO2 4.3 μm observations in
the study of the energetics and dynamics of the nighttime MLT.
Melina-Maria Zempila, Jos H. G. M. van Geffen, Michael Taylor, Ilias Fountoulakis, Maria-Elissavet Koukouli, Michiel van Weele, Ronald J. van der A, Alkiviadis Bais, Charikleia Meleti, and Dimitrios Balis
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NILU irradiances at five UV channels were used to produce CIE, vitamin D, and DNA- damage daily doses via a neural network (NN) model. The NN was trained with collocated weighted Brewer spectra and uncertainty in the NILU-derived UV effective doses was 7.5 %. TEMIS UV products were found to be ~ 12.5 % higher than the NILU estimates. The results improve for cloud-free days with differences of 0.57 % for CIE, 1.22 % for vitamin D, and 1.18 % for DNA damage, with standard deviations of ~ 11–13 %.
S. Noll, W. Kausch, S. Kimeswenger, S. Unterguggenberger, and A. M. Jones
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 3647–3669, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-3647-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-3647-2015, 2015
Short summary
Short summary
We discuss a high-quality data set of simultaneous observations of 25 OH bands with an astronomical echelle spectrograph. These data allowed us to analyse band-dependent OH populations and temperatures. In particular, we could find different non-LTE contributions to OH rotational temperatures depending on band, line set, and observing time. This is critical for mesopause studies that use these temperatures as a proxy of the true temperatures.
A. G. Feofilov, A. A. Kutepov, C.-Y. She, A. K. Smith, W. D. Pesnell, and R. A. Goldberg
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 12, 9013–9023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-9013-2012, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-12-9013-2012, 2012
M. Füllekrug, R. Roussel-Dupré, E. M. D. Symbalisty, J. J. Colman, O. Chanrion, S. Soula, O. van der Velde, A. Odzimek, A. J. Bennett, V. P. Pasko, and T. Neubert
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 7747–7754, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-7747-2011, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-7747-2011, 2011
M. Füllekrug, C. Hanuise, and M. Parrot
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 11, 667–673, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-667-2011, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-11-667-2011, 2011
W. J. R. French and F. J. Mulligan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 10, 11439–11446, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-10-11439-2010, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-10-11439-2010, 2010
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Short summary
We compare temperatures derived from simultaneous observations of 25 OH and two O2 mesospheric airglow bands taken with the X-shooter spectrograph at the Very Large Telescope in Chile. Considering emission and temperature profile data from the radiometer SABER on the TIMED satellite, we find significant time-dependent non-thermal contributions to the OH-based temperatures, especially for bands originating from high vibrational levels. Many studies of the mesopause region are affected.
We compare temperatures derived from simultaneous observations of 25 OH and two O2 mesospheric...
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