ROMICCO

Observation of the mesopsheric dynamics using ground-based measurements oc CO above the Arctic

In this project a new millimeterwave radiometer for the observation of mesospheric CO will be employed at the AWIPEV research base on Spitzbergen (79N). This newly designed instrument will yield a better data quality than the instrument used in the past for this study. It will be possibly to study short and medium variations (smaller periods than a day). Those variations are caused by gravity waves and influence the transport of gases and radicals from thermosphere and mesosphere in the stratosphere where they may have large influence on the Ozone layer.

An example is the catalytic depletion of the Ozone by nitrogen radicals. This effect is highly variable and mostly caused by gravity waves. Because the strength of gravity waves is determined by properties of the stratosphere, this is a feedback mechanism which is not understood very well.

Combined with complementary measurements in Kiruna, at the boundary of the Arctic, the transistion of the residual circulation in spring will be studied.

Contact: Mathias Palm <mathias.palm@uni-bremen.de>
     University of Bremen