Characterization of noctilucent clouds utilizing a ten-channel photometer
Document ID: 324
McKeever, Kenneth R1
Greenert, Kristoffer L1
Philbrick, C. Russell1
1 The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Electrical Engineering, University Park, PA, U.S.A.
Presented: 18th ESA Symposium on 'European Rocket and Balloon Programmes and Related Research'
Visby, Sweden, June 3-7, 2007
Abstract
On July I, 2006, the ESPRIT rocket payload was launched at 0639 UTC from the Andøya Rocket Range in Andenes, Norway. At the time of launch, a strong noctilucent cloud layer was detected at 82.1 km altitude by the ALOMAR RMR LIDAR. This rocket payload was equipped with a 10-channel noctilucent cloud photometer, which included 5 pairs of two channels each. Each pair included orthogonal polarization filters and looked out of the rocket at different angles. Three wavelengths of 340 nm, 420 nm, and 550 nm were assigned to the channel pairs. This photometer was designed to allow identification of many characteristics of a noctilucent cloud layer. The different polarizations in each pair pennitted examination of the polarization effects in the light scattered from noctilucent cloud particles. Three different wavelengths allow several different color ratios to be computed from the data.