Solar cycle response and long-term trends in the mesospheric metal layers

Abstract

The meteoric metal layers (Na, Fe, and K)—which form as a result of the ablation of incoming meteors—act as unique tracers for chemical and dynamical processes that occur within the upper mesosphere/lower thermosphere region. In this work, we examine whether these metal layers are sensitive indicators of decadal long-term changes within the upper atmosphere. Output from a whole-atmosphere climate model is used to assess the response of the Na, K, and Fe layers across a 50 year period (1955–2005). At short timescales, the K layer has previously been shown to exhibit a very different seasonal behavior compared to the other metals. Here we show that this unusual behavior is also exhibited at longer timescales (both the ~11 year solar cycle and 50 year periods), where K displays a much more pronounced response to atmospheric temperature changes than either Na or Fe. The contrasting solar cycle behavior of the K and Na layers predicted by the model is confirmed using satellite and lidar observations for the period 2004–2013.

Description
Keywords
mesospheric metal, solar cycle, long-term trends, modeling, satellite retrieval
Citation
Dawkins, E. C. M., Plane, J. M. C., Chipperfield, M. P., Feng, W., Marsh, D. R., Höffner, J., & Janches, D. (2016). Solar cycle response and long-term trends in the mesospheric metal layers. 121(7). https://doi.org//10.1002/2016JA022522
License
CC BY 4.0 Unported