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    Gravity wave influence on NLC: Experimental results from ALOMAR, 69° N
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2013) Wilms, H.; Rapp, M.; Hoffmann, P.; Fiedler, J.; Baumgarten, G.
    The influence of gravity waves on noctilucent clouds (NLC) at ALOMAR (69° N) is analysed by relating gravity wave activity to NLC occurrence from common-volume measurements. Gravity wave kinetic energies are derived from MF-radar wind data and filtered into different period ranges by wavelet transformation. From the dataset covering the years 1999–2011, a direct correlation between gravity wave kinetic energy and NLC occurrence is not found, i.e., NLC appear independently of the simultaneously measured gravity wave kinetic energy. In addition, gravity wave activity is divided into weak and strong activity as compared to a 13 yr mean. The NLC occurrence rates during strong and weak activity are calculated separately for a given wave period and compared to each other. Again, for the full dataset no dependence of NLC occurrence on relative gravity wave activity is found. However, concentrating on 12 h of NLC detections during 2008, we do find an NLC-amplification with strong long-period gravity wave occurrence. Our analysis hence confirms previous findings that in general NLC at ALOMAR are not predominantly driven by gravity waves while exceptions to this rule are at least possible.
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    The noctilucent cloud (NLC) display during the ECOMA/MASS sounding rocket flights on 3 August 2007: Morphology on global to local scales
    (München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2009) Baumgarten, G.; Fiedler, J.; Fricke, K.H.; Gerding, M.; Hervig, M.; Hoffmann, P.; Müller, N.; Pautet, P.-D.; Rapp, M.; Robert, C.; Rusch, D.; von Savigny, C.; Singer, W.
    During the ECOMA/MASS rocket campaign large scale NLC/PMC was observed by satellite, lidar and camera from polar to mid latitudes. We examine the observations from different instruments to investigate the morphology of the cloud. Satellite observations show a planetary wave 2 structure. Lidar observations from Kühlungsborn (54° N), Esrange (68° N) and ALOMAR (69° N) show a highly dynamic NLC layer. Under favorable solar illumination the cloud is also observable by ground-based cameras. The cloud was detected by cameras from Trondheim (63° N), Juliusruh (55° N) and Kühlungsborn. We investigate planetary scale morphology and local scale gravity wave structures, important for the interpretation of the small scale rocket soundings. We compare in detail the lidar observations with the NLC structure observed by the camera in Trondheim. The ALOMAR RMR-lidar observed only a faint NLC during the ECOMA launch window, while the camera in Trondheim showed a strong NLC display in the direction of ALOMAR. Using the high resolution camera observations (t~30 s, Δx<5 km) and the wind information from the meteor radar at ALOMAR we investigate the formation and destruction of NLC structures. We observe that the NLC brightness is reduced by a factor of 20–40 within 100 s which can be caused by a temperature about 15 K above the frostpoint temperature. A horizontal temperature gradient of more than 3 K/km is estimated.