This project concerns studies of mesospheric clouds and of vertical transport and mixing processes between the stratosphere, the land-ice surface and the free troposphere, in Antarctica. Existing and new observations made by the MARA atmospheric radar and by high-resolution radiosondes will be used. This season MARA will be relocated from the Swedish research station Wasa to the Norwegian station Troll, and in the longer term, to the Indian station Maitri.
MARA at the Swedish research station Wasa. Photo: Sheila Kirkwood
The project aims to provide a "landmark" of the characteristics of clouds at the polar summer mesosphere, which are expected to increase in response to increasing amounts of CO2 and CH4 in the atmosphere. The project will develop and test new independent calibration methods to allow the recent decade's observations of radar echoes from the clouds to be accurately compared to observations made in future decades and to be used to determine cloud-ice characteristics. At lower heights the processes occurring during mountain waves, tropopause folds and turbulent mixing events will be studied. Public domain models will be used to track air mass sources and destinations, and to examine the context of mixing events.
Principal Investigator: Sheila Kirkwood, Swedish Institute of Space Physics
10 November: Sweden–Cape Town, South Africa
14 November: Cape Town–Novolazarevskaya, Antarctica
15 November: Novolazarevskaya–Troll
20 November: Work with the small antenna
1 January: Parts for the antenna arrives
2 January: Work with the antenna and other equipment
22 February: Troll–Novolazarevskaya
24 February: Novolazarevskaya–Cape Town
27 February: Cape Town–Sweden
Satellite image of Troll. Show large map