Analysis of 24 years of mesopause region OH rotational temperature observations at Davis, Antarctica – Part 1: long-term trends

French, W. John R.; Mulligan, Frank J.; Klekociuk, Andrew R.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6379-2020

Articles | Volume 20, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6379-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-6379-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 11

Research article

|

04 Jun 2020

Research article |

| 04 Jun 2020

Analysis of 24 years of mesopause region OH rotational temperature observations at Davis, Antarctica – Part 1: long-term trends

W. John R. French, Frank J. Mulligan, and Andrew R. Klekociuk

Data sets

Rotational temperature studies of the hydroxyl airglow layer above Davis, Antarctica G. Burns and J. French https://data.aad.gov.au/metadata/records/Davis_OH_airglow/

Validation of the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder temperature and geopotential height measurements (https://mls.jpl.nasa.gov) M. J. Schwartz et al. https://doi.org/10.1029/2007jd008783

Overview of the SABER experiment and preliminary calibration results (http://saber.gats-inc.com/data.php) J. M. Russell III, M. G. Mlynczak, L. L. Gordley, J. J. Tansock Jr., and R. W. Esplin https://doi.org/10.1117/12.366382

Short summary

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.