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Questions tagged [upper-atmosphere]

The upper-atmosphere is the part of earth's atmosphere that is above the homosphere (where all gases are well mixed) and starts at approximatly 100km. When asking questions specifically about the upper-atmosphere, use this tag and also include the [atmosphere] tag and [meteorology] tag if appropriate.

2 votes
1 answer
152 views

convert geopotential height's unit from m**2 s**-2 to hPa

Can someone please explain how to convert geopotential height 500 hPa from ERA5, where units while plotting are displayed as m2 s-2?
gklk_bap's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
55 views

Effect of changes in the air's nitrogen-oxygen-carbondioxide proportions

I recall (although, perhaps wrongly), from my PADI scuba diving books, that air is made up of 78% nitrogen, 0.8% CO2 and 1.2% O2. I was wondering, what would happen to our lungs (or to that of any ...
Joselin Jocklingson's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
102 views

Why does the blue hour look pink when watched from an isolated island?

Blue hour is a part of nautical twilight when sky is very blue. This blueness appears because of Chappuis absorption of reddish light in stratospheric ozone. At later stages of nautical twilight, near ...
Ruslan's user avatar
  • 461
1 vote
0 answers
30 views

What are the reaction mechanisms for singlet oxygen in the atmosphere?

Just as the production cycles of Ozone are dependent on the incident falling ultraviolet light and is fairly complex, I was wondering what the process of the production of singlet oxygen in the ...
C-Consciousness's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
195 views

Why are red auroras rare? Why do oxygen atoms (not oxygen molecules) cause auroras while molecular nitrogen cause auroras instead of atomic nitrogen?

Firstly, since there are a lot of oxygen atoms at a height of 200km, and less energy is needed to produce a red aurora than a green aurora, so it should be easier to produce red auroras than green ...
Lisa Baron's user avatar
6 votes
0 answers
229 views

What exactly causes this moving orange glow before sunrise?

I've been watching twilights for some time, and noticed that each time there's a very clear sky, an orange-pinkish glow is visible at the solar azimuth when Sun is somewhere between 1° and 5.5° below ...
Ruslan's user avatar
  • 461
22 votes
2 answers
5k views

Is there still a hole in the ozone layer?

In the 90's, there was a hole in the ozone layer as big as Antarctica. After the Montreal protocol was created, harmful CFCs were no longer emitted and the ozone layer problem subsided. I was just ...
usernumber's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
16 views

Does an increase in SR lead to an increase in strength and intensity of ionospheric lightning?

As explained in the following document: ELF Electromagnetic Waves from Lightning: The Schumann Resonances Upper-Atmosphere phenomena like Sprites and Elves can be recorded with extremely low frequency ...
C-Consciousness's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
92 views

Range of frequencies of the Schumann resonance?

Crossposted at Physics SE As the surface-ionospheric gap acts as a resonator for electromagnetic waves, it should have several harmonic values from the base, fundamental frequency of 7.83 Hz. These ...
C-Consciousness's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
133 views

Why is the Regener-Pfotzer maximum (radiation in upper atmosphere) above central California?

The site https://spaceweather.com/ has a section called Space Weather Balloon Data which shows the image below and says: The data points in the graph above correspond to the peak of the Regener-...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 7,062
3 votes
2 answers
238 views

Now Mars is pulsing 3 times per night in the UV, can anyone explain these waves in simple terms? Do these waves have analogies on Earth?

I link below to questions on another kind of Mars pulse) Phys.org's NASA's Maven observes Martian night sky pulsing in ultraviolet light links to the new paper Imaging of Martian Circulation Patterns ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 7,062
4 votes
3 answers
152 views

Are atmospheric halogen oxides "supposed to be" in the atmosphere? Where do they come from?

I like to naively think of Earth's natural atmosphere as nitrogen, oxygen, argon, water, carbon dioxide and okay, some nitrogen and sulfur oxides, and again okay, a little hydrogen and methane from ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 7,062
9 votes
3 answers
881 views

Why are atmospheric BrO and ClO important to measure by satellite?

The announcement Arianespace orbits two satellites – JCSAT-17 and GEO-KOMPSAT-2B – to support connectivity and environmental monitoring in Asia mentions GEO-KOMPSAT-2B which hosts the Geostationary ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 7,062
5 votes
2 answers
4k views

Can ionospheric plasma disturbances affect the weather?

I've read about how ionospheric discharges like jets can be initiated/triggered by lightning, and how lightning can propagate upwards from clouds. What I was wondering is if this can happen in ...
Tom's user avatar
  • 233
5 votes
1 answer
62 views

Does airglow intensity systematically change during the night?

Airglow is caused, among other factors, by recombination of atoms ionized during the day. This makes me think that during the night concentration of these ions should reduce, lowering intensity of ...
Ruslan's user avatar
  • 461

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