Identification

Title

Trends and solar irradiance effects in the mesosphere

Abstract

We investigate trends and solar irradiance effects in the mesosphere using the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with eXtended thermosphere and ionosphere (WACCM-X) and radar measurements of winds at Collm (51 degrees N, 13 degrees E), for the period of 1980-2014. We found that in the mesosphere, dynamics significantly impact temperature and wind trends, as well as how solar irradiance affects the temperature and winds. The global average temperature trends are negative, with a maximum of similar to-1 K per decade in the middle to lower mesosphere. Solar irradiance effects on the global average temperature are positive and decrease monotonically with decreasing altitude, changing from similar to 3 K/100 solar flux units (sfu) near the mesopause to similar to 1 K per 100 sfu in the lower mesosphere. In the summer upper mesosphere, temperature trends can become near 0 or positive, likely due to dynamical effects. Both wind trends and solar effects on the winds show dynamical patterns with negative and positive values, indicating that they are predominantly controlled by dynamics. The wind trends and solar effects on the winds are on the orders of similar to +/- 5 m/s per decade and similar to +/- 5 m/s per 100 sfu, respectively, and they are not as statistically significant as their temperature counterparts. At Collm (51 degrees N, 13 degrees E), the observed zonal winds at 90 km have a larger trend of 1.98 m/s per decade compared to the simulated zonal winds and it is statistically significant, but both the simulated and observed meridional winds do not have statistically significant trends.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7tq64mt

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

2019-02-11T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

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Conformity

Data format

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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