國立中央大學大氣科學學系系友會

講　題/Title：Fast meridional transport of space shuttle engine plume: What can we learn in climate and dynamics?

主講人/Speaker：Dr. Jia Yue

                        Research Associate Professor, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Hampton University, USA

時　間/Time：103年10月28日 星期二 上午11:00

地　點/Place：健雄館(科四館)S4-811教室

摘 要/Abstract：

The shuttle main engine exhaust plume of water vapor was released at ~ 110 km height when the Columbia space shuttle was launched in January 2003 during its last mission. The plume was further transported from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, rapidly to Antarctica within 3 days [Stevens et al., 2005] and formed polar mesospheric clouds (PMC). This fast transport mechanism remains a mystery in the upper atmosphere community, because the mean meridional circulation at that height is much slower. Diagnostic calculations are performed to trace the particles with the adjusted quasi-two-day planetary wave and atmospheric thermal tides simulated in the NCAR Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere-Electrodynamics General Circulation Model, TIME-GCM. The results show that we can reproduce this fast meridional transport. The combined effect of Rossby waves and tides driving the fast southward wind is proposed to explain the transport. On the climate change issue, if we assume 10% effect of PMC albedo is from the shuttle launch, the long-term PMC trend can be reduced by 20%. In order to drive the fast transport, a new insight of the quasi-two-day wave in the lower thermosphere is provided.

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