Interannual and Long-Term Changes in Middle Atmosphere Temperature from Haloe

Abstract

Radiative models of the middle atmosphere indicate that the largest temperature response due to steadily increasing amounts of atmospheric CO2 should occur at pressure altitudes between 1 and 0.1 hPa (about 48 to 64 km) and be of the order of 0.5 to 0.6 K/decade on a pressure surface . Such a rate assumes that there is no trend in ozone or in the dissipation of wave activity for that region of the middle atmosphere. This rate of cooling is only of the order of 0.20 to 0.25% per decade, which is a small trend to discern from observations. We have analyzed the 11-year, Version 19 (or V19) temperature versus pressure profile (or T(p)) time series from the UARS Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) for such trends at selected pressure levels. The HALOE T(p) time series are being obtained using CO2 transmission data centered at 2.8 micrometers and from a single instrument that uses the limb solar occultation measurement geometry, which provides significant advantages for the calibration of its single profiles.