Abstract
The CRyogenic Infrared Spectrometers and Telescopes for the Atmosphere (CRISTA) experiment is an infrared limb sounder designed to analyze the distribution of trace gases in the terrestrial middle and upper atmosphere with high spatial and temporal resolution. CRISTA was successfully flown aboard the CRISTA-SPAS freeflier together with ATLAS-3 during the Space Shuttle mission STS-66 in November 1994. A second and also very successful flight of CRISTA took place in August 1997 as part of the Space Shuttle mission STS-85. It was found that the measured trace gas distributions exhibited strong structures with scales from a few 100 km horizontally and from a few km vertically. Only under summer conditions trace gas concentrations were observed which followed latitudinal gradients alone. At other times pronounced longitudinal variations were found at all latitudes and at all altitudes. Streamers were seen in the distribution of several trace gases in both CRISTA missions. At high southern latitudes polar stratospheric clouds were detected which exhibited a significant spatial and temporal variability.
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