First near‐global retrievals of OH rotational temperatures from satellite‐based Meinel band emission measurements

Abstract

For the first time near‐global retrievals of mesopause OH rotational temperatures from satellite‐borne Meinel band emission measurements are presented. The measurements of the OH (3‐1) Meinel band near 1.5 micron were performed with the SCIAMACHY instrument on the European Space Agency's environmental satellite Envisat. The derived OH (3‐1) rotational temperatures are shown to be in reasonable agreement with the CIRA (1986) atmosphere temperatures for the seasons and latitudes considered. The derived temperatures are in good agreement with ground‐based measurements of the OH rotational temperature performed with a CEDAR Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (MTM) at Maui, Hawaii (21°N/204°E), with the GRound based Infrared P‐branch Spectrometer I (GRIPS‐I) at Hohenpeißenberg (47°N/11°E) and with GRIPS‐II at Wuppertal (51°N/7°E). The SCIAMACHY limb nighttime observations provide a unique data set of near‐global OH rotational temperature to study seasonal and geographical variations, dynamical processes and possibly long‐term temperature trends, if an extended data set becomes available in the future.