scostep 2010 (stp12) - Leibniz-Institut für Atmosphärenphysik an der ...

STP12 Abstracts
Berlin, 12 - 16 July 2010
SCOSTEP Symposium 2010
Studying the Inter-hemispheric Coupling during Polar Summer Mesosphere Warming
in 2002
Goldberg Richard 1 , Feofilov Artem 2 , Pesnell William 1 , Kutepov Alexander 2
1 2
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, The Catholic University of America and NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center
It has been found that the northern summer polar mesopause region in 2002 was warmer than
normal and of shorter duration than for other years analyzed. Theoretical studies have implied
that the abnormal characteristics of this polar summer were generated by unusual dynamical
processes occurring in the southern polar winter hemisphere. We have used data from the
SABER instrument aboard the NASA TIMED Satellite to study these processes for polar
summer periods of 2002-2009. For background, SABER is a broadband limb scanning
radiometer that measures a large number of minor atmospheric constituents as well as
pressure and temperature in the 13-110 km altitude range over most of the globe.We will use
SABER temperature data to illustrate the correlated heating seen between the southern and
northern hemispheres during June and July 2002. We will then describe the approach to study
the wave characteristics of the atmospheric temperature profiles and demonstrate the features
that were unique for 2002 compared to the other years.