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Aeronomy of the Earth's Atmosphere and Ionosphere pp 67–74Cite as

Microphysical Properties of Mesospheric Aerosols: An Overview of In Situ-Results from the ECOMA Project

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Part of the book series: IAGA Special Sopron Book Series ((IAGA,volume 2))

Abstract

Six sounding rockets were launched within the ECOMA (=“Existence and Charge state Of Meteoric smoke particles in the middle Atmosphere”) project to study the characteristics of meteoric smoke particles (MSPs) and mesospheric ice particles, as well as their possible microphysical relation. The launches were conducted during three campaigns from the Andøya Rocket Range (69°N, 16°E), one in September 2006, and the other two in the summers of 2007 and 2008. This chapter provides an overview of these observations and presents the corresponding geophysical results with special emphasis on our understanding of the micropyhsics of mesospheric ice particles. Most notably, we are able to confirm the existence of MSPs at all altitudes between 60 and 85 km in September, and a seasonal variation that is consistent with previous model studies in which MSP-variability is mainly driven by the global circulation. Together with these model studies as well as recent satellite observations of MSPs our results hence cast some doubt on a standard assumption of state-of-the-art microphysical models of mesospheric ice clouds, namely that ice nucleation mainly occurs heterogeneously on MSPs.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the German Space Agency (DLR) under grants 50 OE 0301 and 50 OE 0801 (Project ECOMA). The Norwegian part of the project was supported by the Norwegian Space Centre and the Research Council of Norway (grant 177295).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radars and Sounding Rockets, Leibniz-Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Rostock University, 18225, Kuehlungsborn, Germany

    Markus Rapp

  2. Department of Radars and Sounding Rockets, Leibniz-Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Rostock University, Kuehlungsborn, Germany

    Irina Strelnikova & Boris Strelnikov

  3. Graz University of Technology, Graz, Austria

    Martin Friedrich

  4. Stockholm University, Stockholm, Swedon

    Jörg Gumbel

  5. Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), Kjeller, Norway

    Ulf-Peter Hoppe & Tom Blix

  6. University of Tromso, Tromso, Norway

    Ove Havnes

  7. Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA

    Phillip Bracikowski & K.A. Lynch

  8. University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, USA

    Scott Knappmiller

Authors
  1. Markus Rapp
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  2. Irina Strelnikova
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  3. Boris Strelnikov
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  4. Martin Friedrich
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  5. Jörg Gumbel
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  6. Ulf-Peter Hoppe
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  7. Tom Blix
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  8. Ove Havnes
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  9. Phillip Bracikowski
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  10. K.A. Lynch
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  11. Scott Knappmiller
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Markus Rapp .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Espaciais (INPE), Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas, Av. dos Astronautas 1758, São Jose dos Campos, 12227-010, São Paulo, Brazil

    Mangalathayil Ali Abdu

  2. Geophysical Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Acad. Georgi Bonchev St., Sofia, 1113, Bulgaria

    Dora Pancheva

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Rapp, M. et al. (2011). Microphysical Properties of Mesospheric Aerosols: An Overview of In Situ-Results from the ECOMA Project. In: Abdu, M., Pancheva, D. (eds) Aeronomy of the Earth's Atmosphere and Ionosphere. IAGA Special Sopron Book Series, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0326-1_4

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