Identification

Title

Radiative and energetic constraints on the global annual mean atomic oxygen concentration in the mesopause region

Abstract

We present a new approach to constrain and validate atomic oxygen (O) concentrations in the mesopause region (~ 80 to ~100 km). In a prior companion paper [Mlynczak et al., ], we presented O-atom concentrations in the mesopause region inferred from measurements of day ozone and night hydroxyl emission rates made by the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument. The approach presented here uses the constraint of global, annual mean energy balance to derive atomic oxygen concentrations, consistent with rates of radiative cooling by carbon dioxide (CO₂) and solar heating due to molecular oxygen (O₂). The mathematical difference between these cooling and heating rates, on a global annual mean basis, effectively constrains the maximum heating rate for the sum of all other processes. The remaining terms, solar heating due to ozone plus a series of exothermic chemical reactions can be expressed as functions of O. This new approach enables a simple mathematical expression that yields the vertical profile of global annual mean "radiatively constrained" atomic oxygen in the mesopause region. The radiatively constrained atomic oxygen depends only on the CO₂ cooling rates, O₂ solar heating rates, and standard reaction rate coefficients and enthalpies. Radiative cooling and solar heating rates used in these analyses are derived from measurements made by the SABER instrument on the NASA Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics satellite. There is excellent agreement between the SABER radiatively constrained atomic oxygen and that derived from the SABER ozone and OH emission measurements over most of the mesopause region. Radiatively constrained atomic oxygen represents an upper limit on the global average O-atom concentration in the mesopause region.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7v988xf

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

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Topic category

geoscientificInformation

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Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

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reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

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date type

publication

effective date

2013-06-16T00:00:00Z

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None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

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