Document Type

Poster

Publication Date

5-7-2012

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Rocky Mountain Space Grant Consortium Annual Meeting

Abstract

In 2002, the Sounding of the Atmosphere us- ing Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instru- ment aboard the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite went online and has since been providing radiometric data concern- ing the mesosphere and lower thermosphere/ionosphere (MLTI) region of the atmosphere. Researchers at the Utah State University NASA Space Grant Consortium have been tasked with validating measurements of the hydroxyl airglow volume emission rates (VER) taken by SABER. To this end, we compare SABER measurements of the altitude distribution of hydroxyl airglow to mea- surements taken by photometers aboard rockets launched between 1961 and 1986 that were catalogued in 1988 by Baker and Stair [1]. We select for comparison SABER scans taken near these launch sites at the same time of year, and at similar solar zenith angles. We then plot the selected SABER altitude profiles alongside renormalized rocket photometer profiles. Important considerations for comparison are the mean thickness of emission layers, the mean altitude of their centers, and relative numbers of bifurcated airglow emission layers, which manifest as altitude profiles with two or more peaks.

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