Stratospheric observations of noctilucent clouds: a new approach in studying middle- and large-scale mesospheric dynamics

Dalin, Peter; Pertsev, Nikolay; Perminov, Vladimir; Efremov, Denis; Romejko, Vitaly

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-38-61-2020

Articles | Volume 38, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-38-61-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-38-61-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 38, issue 1

Regular paper

|

16 Jan 2020

Regular paper |

| 16 Jan 2020

Stratospheric observations of noctilucent clouds: a new approach in studying middle- and large-scale mesospheric dynamics

Peter Dalin, Nikolay Pertsev, Vladimir Perminov, Denis Efremov, and Vitaly Romejko

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Final revised paper (published on 16 Jan 2020)
Preprint (discussion started on 20 Aug 2019)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Review of Dalin et al. 2019', Anonymous Referee #1, 15 Sep 2019
- AC1: 'Reply to Anonymous Referee #1', Peter Dalin, 09 Oct 2019
RC2: 'Rview of Dalin et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 29 Sep 2019
- AC3: 'Reply to Anonymous Referee #2', Peter Dalin, 14 Oct 2019
AC2: 'Reply to Anonymous Referee #2', Peter Dalin, 10 Oct 2019

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Reconsider after major revisions (further review by editor and referees) (16 Oct 2019) by Petr Pisoft

AR by Peter Dalin on behalf of the Authors (16 Oct 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (24 Oct 2019) by Petr Pisoft

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (25 Oct 2019)

RR by Anonymous Referee #3 (20 Nov 2019)

Suggestions for revision or reasons for rejection

This revised paper describes NLC observations from a stratospheric balloon carried out during a campaign in the Moscow area during the 2018 NLC season. The observations are novel and have the potential to provide new and interesting insight into NLC and the processes affecting NLCs. The paper does not really present spectacularly new results, but is still an interesting contribution to the field and should be published subject to some minor revisions, in my opinion. The paper is overall well written and easy to follow.

Specific comments:

Line 183 following: the vertical gradient of potential temperature was determined from MLS temperature measurements. The vertical resolution of MLS temperature profiles in the upper mesosphere is with 12 – 14 km quite low. Given this poor vertical resolution, how reliable can estimates of the potential temperature gradient at NLC altitude be? I’m not convinced one can draw robust conclusions.

Line 241 following: How can you distinguish between an altitude variation and a variation of the horizontal distance between the cloud and the balloon. In other words, how can you distinguish between a vertical and a horizontal wave pattern? I don't think a unique altitude determination is possible based on the ballon images only.

Line 258: “kinetic wave energy“
Strictly speaking, the „E“ in the equation provided is not an energy, i.e., its unit is not Joule.

Line 531: „at the mesopause (86.1 km)“
Is this geometric or geopotential altitude?

Typos, grammar etc.:

Line 67: “are limited to” -> “are limited by”

Line 174: “those centers” -> “whose centers” ?

Line 525: “build” -> “built”

Line 529: “trajectories” -> “trajectory”

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ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (25 Nov 2019) by Petr Pisoft

AR by Peter Dalin on behalf of the Authors (29 Nov 2019) Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (11 Dec 2019) by Petr Pisoft

AR by Peter Dalin on behalf of the Authors (12 Dec 2019) Manuscript

Short summary

A unique stratospheric balloon-borne observation of noctilucent clouds (NLCs) was performed at night on 5–6 July 2018. A sounding balloon, carrying the NLC camera, reached 20.4 km altitude. NLCs were observed from the stratosphere at large scales (100–1500 km) for the first time. Propagations of gravity waves of various scales were registered. This experiment is rather simple and can be reproduced by the broad geoscience community and amateurs, providing a new technique in NLC observations.