Abstract
Abstract. The OH airglow has been used to investigate the chemistry and dynamics of the mesosphere and the lower thermosphere (MLT) for a long time. The infrared imager (IRI) aboard the Odin satellite has been recording the night-time 1.53 µm OH (3-1) emission for more than 15 years (2001–2015), and we have recently processed the complete data set. The newly derived data products contain the volume emission rate profiles and the Gaussian-approximated layer height, thickness, peak intensity and zenith intensity, and their corresponding error estimates. In this study, we describe the retrieval steps for these data products. We also provide data screening recommendations. The monthly zonal averages depict the well-known annual oscillation and semi-annual oscillation signatures, which demonstrate the fidelity of the data set (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4746506, Li et al., 2021). The uniqueness of this Odin IRI OH long-term data set makes it valuable for studying various topics, for instance, the sudden stratospheric warming events in the polar regions and solar cycle influences on the MLT.
Highlights
The OH airglow is an important feature that aids us in understanding the thermal, dynamical and chemical variations that occur in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) region
We describe the retrieval of the volume emission rate (VER) profiles of the OH (3-1) layer, and characterise the layer in terms of peak intensity, peak height, thickness and zenith intensity
Several anomalies seen around the North Pole are associated with the episodic stratospheric warming (SSW) events that result in a very intense airglow layer centred at a much lower altitude with a greater thickness, which is depicted in Winick et al (2009), Damiani et al (2010), Gao et al (2011) and Sheese et al (2014)
Summary
The OH airglow is an important feature that aids us in understanding the thermal, dynamical and chemical variations that occur in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT) region. García-Comas et al (2017) used the SABER measurements to derive an empirical formula in order to predict the emission altitude of the OH layer measured over the Sierra Nevada Observatory in Granada They found a significant short-term variability caused by overlapping waves at the scale of few hours. Sheese et al (2014) briefly showed intense OH (8-3) emission after an ES SSW episode in winter 2008–2009 (their Fig. 7), recorded by the OS of OSIRIS These ES SSWs have occurred multiple times during the Odin mission, as shown by Pérot and Orsolini (2021), which makes the new IRI OH data set well suited for investigating the thermal, dynamical and chemical couplings during these winters.
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