Scientific objectives of the Solar Mesosphere Explorer mission

• Published in: Pure and applied geophysics 1980-03, Vol.118 (1), p.591-615
• Main Authors: Thomas, Gary E., Barth, Charles A., Hansen, Elaine R., Hord, Charles W., Lawrence, George M., Mount, George H., Rottman, Gary J., Rusch, David W., Ian Stewart, A., Thomas, Ronald J., London, Julius, Bailey, Paul L., Crutzen, Paul J., Dickinson, Robert E., Gille, John C., Liu, Shaw C., Noxon, John F., Farmer, Crofton B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0033-4553; 1420-9136
• DOI: 10.1007/BF01586468

The 1981-1982 Solar Mesosphere Explorer (SME) mission is described. The SME experiment will provide a comprehensive study of mesospheric ozone and the processes that form and destroy it. Five instruments will be carried on the spinning spacecraft to measure the ozone density and its altitude distribution from 30 to 80 km, to monitor the incoming solar ultraviolet radiation, and to measure other atmospheric constituents that affect ozone. The polar-orbiting spacecraft will be placed into a 0300-1500 hr Sun-synchronous orbit. The atmospheric measurements will scan the Earth's limb and measure 1) the mesospheric and stratospheric ozone density distribution by inversion of Rayleigh-scattered UV limb radiance, and the thermal emission from ozone at 9.6 mu m; 2) the water vapor density distribution by inversion of thermal emission at 6.3 mu m; 3) the ozone photolysis rate by inversion of the O sub(2) ( super(1) Delta sub(g) ) 1.27- mu m limb radiance; 4) the temperature profile by a combination of narrow-band and wide-band measurements of the 15- mu m thermal emission by CO sub(2) ; and 5) the NO sub(2) density distribution by inversion of Rayleigh-scattered limb radiance at 0.439 mu m. The solar UV monitor will measure both the 0.2-0.31- mu m spectral region and the Lyman-alpha (0.1216- mu m) contribution to the solar irradiance. This combination of measurements will provide a rigorous test of the photochemical equilibrium theory of the mesospheric oxygen-hydrogen system, will determine the changes that occur in the ozone distribution as a result of changes in the incoming solar radiation, and will detect changes that may occur as a result of meteorological disturbances.