Identification

Title

Numerical simulations of the three-dimensional distribution of polar mesospheric clouds and comparisons with Cloud Imaging and Particle Size (CIPS) experiment and the Solar Occultation For Ice Experiment (SOFIE) observations

Abstract

Polar mesospheric clouds (PMC) routinely form in the cold summer mesopause region when water vapor condenses to form ice. We use a three-dimensional chemistry-climate model based on the Whole-Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) with sectional microphysics from the Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres (CARMA) to study the distribution and characteristics of PMCs formed by heterogeneous nucleation of water vapor onto meteoric smoke particles. We find good agreement between these simulations and cloud properties for the Northern Hemisphere in 2007 retrieved from the Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE) and the Cloud Imaging and Particle Size (CIPS) experiment from the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) mission. The main discrepancy is that simulated ice number densities are less than those retrieved by SOFIE. This discrepancy may indicate an underprediction of nucleation rates in the model, the lack of small-scale gravity waves in the model, or a bias in the SOFIE results. The WACCM/CARMA simulations are not very sensitive to large changes in the barrier to heterogeneous nucleation, which suggests that large supersaturations in the model nucleate smaller meteoric smoke particles than are traditionally assumed. Our simulations are very sensitive to the temperature structure of the summer mesopause, which in the model is largely dependent upon vertically propagating gravity waves that reach the mesopause region, break, and deposit momentum. We find that cloud radiative heating is important, with heating rates of up to 8 K/d.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7x63p6p

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2010-05-18T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

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

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact