Mesospheric Warming/Cooling over Tropics during Jan-Feb 1979

Abstract

Three large warming pulses were reported over the high latitude (80ᵒN) during the last 10 days of January and during February 1979, in the upper stratosphere (~4 mbar) and in the middle stratosphere (~10 mbar). No information about the thermal behaviour of the upper stratosphere and the mesosphere over the tropics was available during the above period. Analysis of the M-100 rocketsonde temperature data for Thumba (lat., 8 32'N; long . 76 52'E) for 8 days in January and for 7 days in February indicated that the mesospheric region over tropics was subjected to a temperature perturbation of more than 15 K. spread through a column of thickness of 13 km (56-69 km), within 6 days (27 Jan-2 Feb). The maximum warming was 29 K at 63 and 64 km.