Inter-hemispheric asymmetry in polar mesosphere summer echoes and temperature at 69° latitude

An inter-hemispheric asymmetry is found in the characteristics of polar mesosphere summer echoes (PMSE) and upper mesosphere temperatures at conjugate latitudes (∼69°) above Antarctica and the Arctic. The second complete mesosphere–stratosphere–troposphere (MST) radar summer observation season at Da...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of atmospheric and solar-terrestrial physics 2009-03, Vol.71 (3), p.464-469
Main Authors: Morris, Ray J., Klekociuk, Andrew R., Latteck, Ralph, Singer, Werner, Holdsworth, David A., Murphy, Damian J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Inter-hemispheric
Mesosphere
MST radar
PMSE
Temperature
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Summary:An inter-hemispheric asymmetry is found in the characteristics of polar mesosphere summer echoes (PMSE) and upper mesosphere temperatures at conjugate latitudes (∼69°) above Antarctica and the Arctic. The second complete mesosphere–stratosphere–troposphere (MST) radar summer observation season at Davis (68.6°S) revealed that PMSE occur less frequently, with lower strength and on average 1 km higher compared with their northern counterparts at Andenes (69.3°N). We consider the thermodynamic state of the mesosphere for conjoining hemispheric summers based on satellite and ground-based radar measurements, and show the mesopause region near ∼80–87 km of the Southern Hemisphere (SH) to be up to 7.5 K warmer than its Northern Hemisphere (NH) counterpart. We show that this is consistent with our observation of asymmetries in the characteristics of PMSE and demonstrate how the mesosphere meridional wind field influences the existence and strength of the echoes in both hemispheres.
ISSN:1364-6826
1879-1824
DOI:10.1016/j.jastp.2008.09.042