Identification

Title

New global meteoric smoke observations from SOFIE: Insight regarding chemical composition, meteoric influx, and hemispheric asymmetry

Abstract

Measurements from the Solar Occultation For Ice Experiment (SOFIE) in both hemispheres are used to characterize meteoric smoke in the mesosphere and to estimate the meteoric flux into Earth's atmosphere. New smoke extinction retrievals from sunrise measurements in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) are presented, which complement the previously reported sunset observations in the Southern Hemisphere (SH). The sunrise observations are in good agreement with simulations from the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM), for both the seasonal and height dependence of smoke in the mesosphere. The SOFIE-WACCM comparisons assumed that smoke in the mesosphere exists purely as Fe-rich olivine. This is justified because olivine is detected optically by SOFIE, meteoric ablation is predicted to inject similar quantities of the most abundant elements (Fe, Mg, and Si) into the mesosphere, and olivine is anticipated by theory and laboratory experiments. In addition, the ablated meteoric influx (AMI) and total meteoric influx determined from SOFIE assuming Fe-rich olivine is in agreement with a recent and independent investigation based on models and observations. SOFIE observations from 2007 to 2021 indicate a global AMI of 7.3 2.2 metric tons per day (t d(-1)), which corresponds to a total influx (ablated plus surviving material) of 24.7 7.3 t d(-1). Finally, the results indicate stronger descent in the NH polar winter mesosphere than in the SH winter. This hemispheric asymmetry at polar latitudes is indicated by smoke and water vapor results from both SOFIE and WACCM.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7n58qt7

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

2021-07-16T00:00:00Z

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