Variability and trends in the OH airglow layer observed by GOMOS/ENVISAT

Alain Hauchecorne (1) , Laurent Blanot (2) , Christophe Bellisario (3) , Philippe Keckhut (1) , Pierre Simoneau (4) , Jean-Loup Bertaux (1)

1 STRATO - LATMOS
2 ACRI-ST - Analytic and Computational Research, Inc. - Earth Sciences
3 ONERA - The French Aerospace Lab [Châtillon]
4 ONERA - The French Aerospace Lab [Palaiseau]

The OH near-infrared nigthglow emission in the upper mesosphere is a marker of the chemistry and dynamics occurring at this level. The stellar occultation spectrometer GOMOS on board ENVISAT allowed to observe the OH(8-4) Meinel band in the spectral range 930-955 nm with a spectrometer dedicated to the observation of the water vapour. Climatology of OH emission has been established for the period 2002-2012. It allowed to confirm already published results as the maximum of intensity and semi-annual variation at the equator. The causes of variability and trends in the brightness and maximum altitude of the OH layer will be discussed. A new result concerns the apparent correlation of the emission rate with the solar activity.

Domains: Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics [physics.ao-ph]

Alain Hauchecorne, Laurent Blanot, Christophe Bellisario, Philippe Keckhut, Pierre Simoneau, et al.. Variability and trends in the OH airglow layer observed by GOMOS/ENVISAT. European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2016, Apr 2016, Vienna, Austria. pp. EGU2016-17349. ⟨insu-01303872⟩