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SYSC: Symposium Strange Clouds – from the Earth to Exoplanets

SYSC 1: Strange Clouds – From the Earth to Exoplanets

SYSC 1.2: Invited Talk

Tuesday, March 21, 2023, 11:20–11:45, HSZ/0004

Clouds to the Edge of Space — •Gerd Baumgarten¹, Ronald Eixmann¹, Jens Fiedler¹, Michael Gerding¹, Mykhaylo Grygalashvyly¹, Franz-Josef Lübken¹, Ashique Vellalassery¹, Christian von Savigny², and Robin Wing¹ — ¹Leibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Rostock — ²Institute of Physics, University of Greifswald

While the troposphere is rich of clouds, the stratosphere and mesosphere is virtually free of clouds. Two examples of strange clouds above the troposphere are Polar Stratospheric Clouds (PSC) and Noctilucent Clouds (NLC). Extraterrestrial sources or space traffic may lead to cases of clouds that quickly disappear. Because of their importance to society, these strange clouds have attracted great interest. For example, PSC are responsible for Ozone destruction following polar winter, ultimately leading to the Ozone hole. NLC are a one-of-a-kind source of information from the Edge of Space, at an altitude of 85 km, dating back to 1885. Only a few lidar instruments are capable of observing NLC, and only the RMR lidar at the ALOMAR observatory in northern Norway is using three different wavelengths. We make use of these multicolor observations to understand microphysical processes in clouds. A new instrument setup in Kühlungsborn allows studying NLC with subsecond resolution and in 3 different directions, allowing to investigate their morphology which reveals atmospheric motion in the transition region of waves to turbulence. We will present strange clouds observed by lidars above Northern Norway and Kühlungsborn. The importance of these observations is investigated using model simulations of NLC from 1885 to 2100.