Responsible: Georg Witt, Bodil Karlsson and Stefan Lossow, in collaboration with Jim Sloan (University of Waterloo, Canada)
The ACE experiment onboard the Canadian SciSat satellite performs solar occultation measurements in a polar orbit since 2003. The experiment is dedicated to the study of chemical processes up to the upper stratosphere including the key species involved in the chemistry of Ozone. ACE comprises two optical experiments. The first of these is MAESTRO, a dual-channel grating spectrograph for the near-UV to near-IR spectral range. The second instrument is a BOMEM Fourier spectrometer (FTS) for the wavelength region between 2 and 13 microns. The FTS spectrum offers an extremely high spectral resolution needed to separate weaker spectral features from the strong background of mainly CO2 and water vapour.
As part of the FTS experiment, the non-structured baseline of the IR spectrum is used to obtain information about the size, shape and composition of stratospheric aerosol particles. Although the study of mesospheric particles has not been foreseen, the extinction measurements offer an excellent opportunity of complementing the Odin NLC observations, notably during the Odin Summer Mesosphere Mission. Georg Witt has become adjoint to the ACE Science Team with access to the FTS data. For the noctilucent cloud study the analysis will be done in close co-operation with the Waterloo group using the data base collected there. The 3.1 micron extinction profiles retrieved during the NLC season from mesospheric heights (up to 100 km tangent altitude) will be examined to establish the absorption of the ice crystals. As to the gas measurements, the water vapour experiment provides useful data up to above the mesopause, thus presenting a highly desirable complement to the ODIN/SMR observations.
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Last updated: January 21, 2006
Jörg Gumbel (gumbel@misu.su.se)