[P-EM05_2AM2] Characteristics of atmospheric waves in the mesosphere-lower thermosphere (MLT)

[PEM05-10] The SMILES observations of mesospheric ozone during the solar eclipse

*Koji IMAI¹, Hideharu AKIYOSHI², Kenshi TAKAHASHI³, Yousuke YAMASHITA², Takashi IMAMURA², Makoto SUZUKI¹, Ken EBISAWA¹, Masato SHIOTANI³ (1.Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Sagamihara, 2.National Institute for Environmental Studies, 3.Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University)

Keywords:SMILES, ozone, mesosphere

Solar eclipse temporally reduces the amount of solar radiation, providing an opportunity to verify the ozone photochemistry under changing solar radiation. During the longest annular solar eclipse in this millennium occurred on 15 January 2010, Superconducting Submillimeter-Wave Limb-Emission Sounder (SMILES) successfully captured increased ozone mostly in the mesosphere with a decrease in solar illuminations. The ozone increment shows altitude dependence in the mesosphere. Using an atmospheric chemistry box model, it is found that the dependence results from the difference in chemical reaction rates to the solar radiation change. The model also predicts the difference in the ozone concentration evolution between the sunlight decreasing and increasing phases, although SMILES observation does not resolve the difference.