Size distributions of NLC particles as determined from 3‐color observations of NLC by ground‐based lidar

Cossart, G. von; Fiedler, Jens; Zahn, U. von

doi:10.1029/1999gl900226

Cited by 192 publications

(212 citation statements)

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“…The ALOMAR lidars (von Zahn et al, 1995) observed strong NLC from 82.1 to 84.1 km at the launch time. This NLC layer varied considerably in height with time and extended down to ∼81 km only ∼10 min before launch and well below 81 km ∼45 min after launch.…”

Section: The Dust Experiments and The Launch Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…12 with Z d =−1. For layer 1, which most likely consists of fairly large NLC dust particles of radius r d ≈50±20 nm (von Cossart et al, 1999;Eremenko et al, 2005), the real Z d should be higher than −1, a likely charge range could be Z d =−2 to −4. This shows that for this NLC/PMSE layer, the production factor η s (max) may well be from 50 to 100.…”

Section: Secondary Charge Production In the Nlc/pmse And Pmse Layermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The radar PMSE phenomenon (Cho and Röttger, 1997;Ecklund and Balsley, 1981;Rapp and Lübken, 2004) was also suspected earlier as being linked to dust particles, due to its similarity in seasonal variation and height distribution to the NLC. Simultaneous and co-located observations of PMSE and NLC conclude that they most likely have common causes (von Zahn and Bremer, 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They were first recognized as being present as visual particles in the noctilucent clouds (NLC) (Gadsden and Schröder, 1989;Thomas, 1991) and later it was suspected that non-visual small dust particles could cause the so-called electron bite-outs, strong local depletions of the electron density which often are measured by rocket probes in the summer mesosphere (Pedersen et al, 1969;Ulwick et al, 1988;Havnes et al, 1996). Lidar observations of NLC particles (von Cossart et al, 1999) indicate that visual NLC particles had an average radius of ∼50 nm and average density of ∼ 8×10 7 m −3 which is confirmed by satellite measurements (Eremenko et al, 2005). The radar PMSE phenomenon (Cho and Röttger, 1997;Ecklund and Balsley, 1981;Rapp and Lübken, 2004) was also suspected earlier as being linked to dust particles, due to its similarity in seasonal variation and height distribution to the NLC.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mesospheric dust and its secondary effects as observed by the ESPRIT payload

Havnes

Surdal²,

Philbrick

2009

Ann. Geophys.

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Abstract. The dust detector on the ESPRIT rocket detected two extended dust/aerosol layers during the launch on 1 July 2006. The lower layer at height ∼81.5-83 km coincided with a strong NLC and PMSE layer. The maximum dust charge density was ∼−3.5×10 9 e m −3 and the dust layer was characterized by a few strong dust layers where the dust charge density at the upper edges changed by factors 2-3 over a distance of 10 m, while the same change at their lower edges were much more gradual. The upper edge of this layer is also sharp, with a change in the probe current from zero to I DC =−10 −11 A over ∼10 m, while the same change at the low edge occurs over ∼500 m. The second dust layer at ∼85-92 km was in the height range of a comparatively weak PMSE layer and the maximum dust charge density was ∼−10 8 e m −3 . This demonstrates that PMSE can be formed even if the ratio of the dust charge density to the electron density P =N d Z d /n e 0.01.In spite of the dust detector being constructed to reduce possible secondary charging effects from dust impacts, it was found that they were clearly present during the passage through both layers. The measured secondary charging effects confirm recent results that dust in the NLC and PMSE layers can be very effective in producing secondary charges with up to ∼50 to 100 electron charges being rubbed off by one impacting large dust particle, if the impact angle is θ i 20-35 • . This again lends support to the suggested model for NLC and PMSE dust particles (Havnes and Naesheim, 2007) as a loosely bound water-ice clump interspersed with a considerable number of sub-nanometer-sized meteoric smoke particles, possibly also contaminated with meteoric atomic species.

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Section: The Dust Experiments and The Launch Conditionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Secondary Charge Production In the Nlc/pmse And Pmse Layermentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Mesospheric dust and its secondary effects as observed by the ESPRIT payload

Havnes

Surdal²,

Philbrick

2009

Ann. Geophys.

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“…The first observation of simultaneous and common-volume observations of NLC measured by lidar and PMSE were published by Nussbaumer et al (1996), who presented four cases and identified tightly and loosely coupled layers. This dataset, obtained at ALOMAR, was extended by von Zahn and Bremer (1999) presenting 22 cases and defining three types of layers, namely PMSE and NLC in a common volume, which accounted for 63% of all cases, layers with temporal differences (16%) and spatial differences (21%). PMSE and NLC have also been observed at other locations, among them Spitsbergen , Poker Flat, Alaska (Taylor et al, 2009) and Antarctica (Klekociuk et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Coincident measurements of PMSE and NLC above ALOMAR (69° N, 16° E) by radar and lidar from 1999–2008

et al. 2011

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Abstract. Polar Mesosphere Summer Echoes (PMSE) and Noctilucent Clouds (NLC) have been routinely measured at the ALOMAR research facility in Northern Norway (69 • N, 16 • E) by lidar and radar, respectively. 2900 h of lidar measurements by the ALOMAR Rayleigh/Mie/Raman lidar were combined with almost 18 000 h of radar measurements by the ALWIN VHF radar, all taken during the years 1999 to 2008, to study simultaneous and common-volume observations of both phenomena. PMSE and NLC are known from both theory and observations to be positively linked. We quantify the occurrences of PMSE and/or NLC and relations in altitude, especially with respect to the lower layer boundaries. The PMSE occurrence rate is with 75.3% considerably higher than the NLC occurrence rate of 19.5%. For overlapping PMSE and NLC observations, we confirm the coincidence of the lower boundaries and find a standard deviation of 1.26 km, hinting at very fast sublimation rates. However, 10.1% of all NLC measurements occur without accompanying PMSE. Comparison of occurrence rates with solar zenith angle reveals that NLC without PMSE mostly occur around midnight indicating that the ice particles were not detected by the radar due to the reduced electron density.

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Estimates of the Size Distribution of Meteoric Smoke Particles From Rocket‐Borne Impact Probes

2017

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Ice particles populating noctilucent clouds and being responsible for polar mesospheric summer echoes exist around the mesopause in the altitude range from 80 to 90 km during polar summer. The particles are observed when temperatures around the mesopause reach a minimum, and it is presumed that they consist of water ice with inclusions of smaller mesospheric smoke particles (MSPs). This work provides estimates of the mean size distribution of MSPs through analysis of collision fragments of the ice particles populating the mesospheric dust layers. We have analyzed data from two triplets of mechanically identical rocket probes, MUltiple Dust Detector (MUDD), which are Faraday bucket detectors with impact grids that partly fragments incoming ice particles. The MUDD probes were launched from Andøya Space Center (69°17'N, 16°1'E) on two payloads during the MAXIDUSTY campaign on 30 June and 8 July 2016, respectively. Our analysis shows that it is unlikely that ice particles produce significant current to the detector, and that MSPs dominate the recorded current. The size distributions obtained from these currents, which reflect the MSP sizes, are described by inverse power laws with exponents of k∼ [3.3 ± 0.7, 3.7 ± 0.5] and k∼ [3.6 ± 0.8, 4.4 ± 0.3] for the respective flights. We derived two k values for each flight depending on whether the charging probability is proportional to area or volume of fragments. We also confirm that MSPs are probably abundant inside mesospheric ice particles larger than a few nanometers, and the volume filling factor can be a few percent for reasonable assumptions of particle properties.

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Size distributions of NLC particles as determined from 3‐color observations of NLC by ground‐based lidar

Cited by 192 publications

References 13 publications

Mesospheric dust and its secondary effects as observed by the ESPRIT payload

Mesospheric dust and its secondary effects as observed by the ESPRIT payload

Coincident measurements of PMSE and NLC above ALOMAR (69° N, 16° E) by radar and lidar from 1999–2008

Estimates of the Size Distribution of Meteoric Smoke Particles From Rocket‐Borne Impact Probes

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