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AGU: Geophysical Research Letters

 

Index Terms

  • Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Airglow and aurora
  • Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Pressure, density, and temperature
  • Atmospheric Processes: Mesospheric dynamics
  • Atmospheric Processes: Remote sensing
  • Atmospheric Processes: Instruments and techniques

Abstract

Intercomparison of kinetic temperature from 15 μm CO2 limb emissions and OH*(3,1) rotational temperature in nearly coincident air masses: SABER, GRIPS

J. Oberheide

Physics Department, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany

D. Offermann

Physics Department, University of Wuppertal, Wuppertal, Germany

J. M. Russell III

Center for Atmospheric Sciences, Physics Department, Hampton University, Hampton, Virginia, USA

M. G. Mlynczak

NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, USA

Three years (2003–2005) of kinetic temperatures measured by the Sounding the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument on board the TIMED satellite are compared to OH*(3,1) rotational temperatures measured by the Ground Based Infrared P-Branch Spectrometer (GRIPS) located at 7.2°E, 51.3°N in Wuppertal, Germany. Comparisons are confined to nearly coincident air masses (miss distance: ∼600 km, miss time: 30 minutes). OH*(3,1) rotational temperatures are systematically higher by 7.5 K than OH equivalent SABER temperatures derived from 15 μm CO2 limb emissions which is just within the combined error bars. The bias is independent of year and season thus providing additional confidence into allocating the mean altitude of the OH* emission layer to a constant value of 87 km for long-term trend analyses.

Received 28 March 2006; accepted 14 June 2006; published 22 July 2006.

Citation: Oberheide, J., D. Offermann, J. M. Russell III, and M. G. Mlynczak (2006), Intercomparison of kinetic temperature from 15 μm CO2 limb emissions and OH*(3,1) rotational temperature in nearly coincident air masses: SABER, GRIPS, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L14811, doi:10.1029/2006GL026439.

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