A new data set of nighttime chemical heating rates in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere derived from SCIAMACHY OH (9–6) emissions and SABER profiles

Wu, Xiaolin; Zhu, Yajun; Smith, Anne K.; Kaufmann, Martin; Jiang, Guoying; Liu, Shuai; Xu, Jiyao

doi:10.5194/acp-26-4669-2026

Articles | Volume 26, issue 7

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-4669-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-4669-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 26, issue 7

Research article

|

09 Apr 2026

Research article |

| 09 Apr 2026

A new data set of nighttime chemical heating rates in the upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere derived from SCIAMACHY OH (9–6) emissions and SABER profiles

Xiaolin Wu, Yajun Zhu, Anne K. Smith, Martin Kaufmann, Guoying Jiang, Shuai Liu, and Jiyao Xu

Data sets

Nighttime chemical heating rates at 80–100 km derived from SCIAMACHY and SABER (2003–2011) X. Wu and Y. Zhu https://doi.org/10.57760/sciencedb.space.03261

Short summary

Chemical reactions are key to the energy budget of the upper mesosphere–lower thermosphere, but this process remains poorly quantified. We derived a new dataset of nighttime chemical heating by combining observations from two different satellite instruments. The main exothermic reactions, hydrogen reacting with ozone and oxygen recombination, dominate at different altitudes and vary seasonally. The new results revise previous estimates and provide constraints on the mesopause energy budget.