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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik
UP 1: Atmosphere - Trace Gases
UP 1.3: Talk
Tuesday, March 8, 2016, 11:30–11:45, H41
Effect of the solar proton events on the OH Meinel emission altitude and variability in Hydroxyl airglow during the last solar cycle retrieved from SCIAMACHY nightglow observations — •Georg Teiser1, Christian von Savigny1, and Holger Winkler2 — 1Institute of Physics, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt-Universität Greifswald — 2Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen
Airglow observations are a fundamental tool to study the Earth's mesosphere. Today there is a network of ground-based instruments at locations distributed all over the world to observe the night time hydroxyl airglow in the mesopause region. In particular the emission of chemically excited OH molecules is used to derive the kinetic temperature in the height of ~87 km. In this context the knowledge of the spatial and temporal variability of the OH nightglow emission is of importance for the interpretation of ground-based OH temperature measurements. The OH nightglow data set from SCIAMACHY on Envisat (from August 2002 to April 2012) is analyzed for 11-year solar cycle signatures and short-term variability, e.g. solar-driven 27-day cycle and QBO signatures in vertical volume emission rate profiles and mean emission altitude of the OH(3-1) and OH(6-2) Meinel emission. Additionally, the effect of precipitating solar protons on the OH Meinel emission rate and emission altitude caused by ion-chemical processes is presented. SCIAMACHY measurements cover all major SPEs in the years 2003 to 2011. The observations are compared with simulations using the UBIC (University of Bremen Ion Chemistry) model.