Evidence for Interhemispheric Coupling during the Unusual Northern Polar Summer Mesosphere of 2002

Data from the MaCWAVE MIDAS Rocket Program launched during July, 2002, from Andoya Rocket Range (ARR) in Norway have demonstrated that the temperature structure of the summer polar mesosphere during this period was atypical, at least above ARR. The summer polar mesopause region was warmer than normal and of shorter duration than for other years analyzed. Theoretical studies have since been published that imply that the abnormal characteristics of this polar summer were generated by unusual dynamical processes occurring in the southern polar winter hemisphere. We have used data from the SABER instrument aboard the NASA TIMED Satellite to study these characteristics on a global scale and compare them with the features observed in the ensuing seven years. For background, The TIMED Satellite was launched on December 7, 2001 to study the dynamics and energy of the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). The SABER instrument on TIMED is a limb scanning infrared radiometer designed to measure a large number of minor constituents as well as temperature of the MLT. In this study, we have investigated the temperature characteristics of the polar mesosphere as a function of spatial and temporal considerations. We have used the most recent SABER dataset (1.07) that includes the improved temperature retrievals in Earth polar regions, Weekly averages were used 10 make the comparisons between the winter and summer hemispheres. The unusually short polar summer in the northern hemisphere during 2002 is clearly defined by this analysis and is shown to be unique for the 7 years analyzed. Furthermore, the data analysis agrees with recent theoretical studies showing that this behavior is a result of anomalous heating events in the southern polar stratosphere. The time sequence of the coupling process, as predicted by recent theoretical models, is well defined in a sequence of weekly temperature contour maps measured by SABER.