FinCOSPAR 2005, Helsinki/Stockholm, Finland, 11-13 May 2005

NEMI (Night-time Emissions from the Mesosphere and Ionosphere)

C.-F. Enell1, E. Turunen1, A. Kero1, Th. Ulich1, K. Kaila2, J. Gumbel3, M. Khaplanov3, J. Hedin3, J. Stegman3, G. Witt3

1Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory, Sodankylä, Finland,
2Department of Physical Sciences, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland,
3Department of Meteorology, Stockholm University, Sweden

Abstract

During the summer of 2006 and January 2007 two rockets will be launched from Andøya Rocket Range, Norway, in the series of EU eARI (Enhanced Access to Research Infrastructure) financed Hotel Payload (HotPay) launches.

For the HotPay II (winter) rocket launch Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory (SGO) and the Meteorological Institute of Stockholm University (MISU) propose a joint project, NEMI (Night-time Emissions from the Mesosphere and Ionosphere). NEMI has four interrelated objectives:

  1. To determine night-sky background emissions from the nitrogen dioxide continuum and from auroral sources
  2. To determine the background chemical state in the mesopause region in terms of atomic oxygen concentations
  3. To determine night-time concentrations of nitric oxide in the mesopause region and their relationship to ionisation conditions
  4. To study the excitation of the O2 Chamberlain Band in the nightglow

The first two objectives serve as a complement to the eARI sodium nightglow study of the University of East Anglia (PI John Plane). The third objective addresses basic ionospheric questions and is closely related to ongoing modelling efforts and to the electron density measurements on the rocket payload. The fourth objective addresses a basic study of a molecular oxygen transitions in the Earth's nightglow.

The NEMI instrumentation is proposed to consist of three rocket-borne photometers with filters centered at 391 nm, 500 nm and 762 nm. These photometers will be provided jointly by SGO/OY and MISU. They will be prepared and calibrated in Stockholm, based on MISU's long experience of rocket-borne photometer instruments. The instruments for the eARI flight will be smaller versions of an existing design that has been flown in 1990 and 1997.

In addition to the eARI rocket flight, necessary supporting measurements will be performed by ground-based photometers and the EISCAT incoherent scatter radars.