First in situ temperature measurements at the Antarctic summer mesopause

Lübken, Franz-Josef; Jarvis, Martin J.; Jones, G. Owen L.. 1999 First in situ temperature measurements at the Antarctic summer mesopause. Geophysical Research Letters, 26 (24). 3581-3584. 10.1029/1999GL010719

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/1999GL010719

Abstract/Summary

The Arctic summer mesopause at ∼88 km is the coldest-known place (∼130 K) in the terrestrial atmosphere and is ∼60 K colder in summer than winter. Indirect evidence has suggested that the summer mesopause temperatures in the Antarctic are a few Kelvin warmer than in the Arctic. However, reliable measurements have not been available at southern high latitudes to verify this. We report the very first in situ temperature observations in the summer mesosphere from Antarctica based on rocket-borne falling spheres launched from Rothera (68°S, 68°W). The first of 24 successful launches, on 5 January 1998, showed a mesopause temperature of 129 K at 87 km, surprisingly close to northern hemisphere (NH) mean summer values. During January the mesospheric temperatures are similar to the northern summer, but the difference increases to several Kelvin in February

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1029/1999GL010719
Programmes:	BAS Programmes > Pre 2000 programme
ISSN:	00948276
Date made live:	21 Oct 2013 10:18 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/503578

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1029/1999GL010719

Programmes:

BAS Programmes > Pre 2000 programme

ISSN:

00948276

Date made live:

21 Oct 2013 10:18 +0 (UTC)

URI:

https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/503578