Lecturer: Peter Dalin Date: 2012-06-14 10:30 Place: Aniara
Sub-polar Mesospheric Clouds Formed by Soyuz Rocket Exhaust
A detailed tracing of a rocket exhaust trail is a scientifically useful and perspective technique. It can provide detailed information on mean winds, wind shears and turbulent regime over a wide altitude range from 60 to 200 km. We analyze two cases of the Soyuz rocket launch from Plesetsk on 21 May 2009 and on 27 June 2011. These cases demonstrate significantly different atmospheric dynamics. The first case shows highly dynamical conditions in the mesosphere, filled with vortex structures, wind shears and turbulent eddies. The estimated turbulent energy dissipation rates have large values of 330-460 mW/kg. The second case demonstrates extremely stable atmospheric conditions. The rocket exhaust trail survived without any changes during its travel from Denmark to the UK within 1h 20 min, and probably it survived during its motion from Plesetsk via Denmark to the UK for 9 hours. This case introduces a new state of the summer mesosphere - extremely quite conditions, which were probably not observed before.
Created 2011-12-21 10:19:37 by Uwe Raffalski Last changed 2012-06-11 10:01:24 by Peter Dalin
