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Fast transport of Space shuttle plume in the upper atmosphere

Fast transport of Space shuttle plume in the upper atmosphere. What do we learn in atmospheric science?. Jia Yue. ASP research review Dec 1. Outline. Columbia shuttle plume observations in Jan. 2003 Proposed fast transport mechanisms & The importance of (quasi-two-day) Rossby waves

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Fast transport of Space shuttle plume in the upper atmosphere

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  1. Fast transport of Space shuttle plume in the upper atmosphere What do we learn in atmospheric science? Jia Yue ASP research review Dec 1

  2. Outline • Columbia shuttle plume observations in Jan. 2003 • Proposed fast transport mechanisms & The importance of (quasi-two-day) Rossby waves • Conclusions

  3. Space Shuttle main engine and exhaust plume • Three main engines per shuttle launch • Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen from external tank • A space shuttle launch deposits ~300 t of water vapor between 100 and 115 km altitude, as well as ablated Fe.

  4. Where do the plume go?Case study from the last Columbia mission STS-107 launched on January 16 2003 (crashed on Feb. 1) • Photodissociation of water vapor produced atomic hydrogen and OH. • Obiter flew at 110 km for 4 min/1000 km and injected water exhaust and ablated Fe. • Plume move inter-hemispherically with a mean speed of 44 m/s. 100 mile/hour 1 day 2 day GUVI, Stevens et al., 2005

  5. Satellite measured mean wind of < 20 m/s Rocket measured transient wind of > 100 m/s Larsen, 2002 McLandress et al., 1996

  6. To reproduce the rapid transport in an off-line diagnostic calculation: Preliminary step – scale underestimated TIME-GCM wave amplitudes based on observations Diurnal tide 30- 40 m/s UARS measurement, McLandress et al., 1996

  7. Scale QTDW from TIME-GCMMeasured large QTDW of up to 100 m/s in January 2003 ×2

  8. Tracers launched at 32N and various longitudes (local times)Trajectories for 3 daysSouthernmost one reaches Antarctica. Yue et al., JASTP, 2010

  9. Proposed mechanism: combined effect of planetary-scale waves: QTDW plus tides Two day wave only Semidiurnal tide only

  10. Summary of observational results compared to our simulations • The planetary-scale waves with scaled amplitude can drive fast meridional transport. • Quasi-two-day wave plays the key role. • The importance of combined effect of different global-scale waves.

  11. Jan. 19-20, 2003 @ Rothera What happened 3 days and 3-10 days after the launch lidar SBUV Stevens et al., 2005 Sporadic Fe layers from main engine ablation by Fe lidar in Antarctica • A burst of PMC occurrence after STS-107 • Accounts for 10-20% of the total PMCs during 2002-2003 austral summer over Antarctica!!!

  12. 64-74°N Impacts on PMC trends: • Assume 10% effect on PMC albedo by each June and July shuttle launch. • 14 (June and July) launches are preferentially distributed to years after 1990. • PMC trend reduced by ~20% when removing shuttle effects. • Contribution from all other smaller launch vehicles not considered. DeLand et al., 2007 and Chu et al., 2009

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