Recent satellite photometry of the airglow has detected an extensive, though tenuous, scattering layer above the summer polar cap. Located near the mesopause, the layer persists throughout the summer season poleward of about 75¿ latitude. By employing a simple growth model for the layer a time dependent radiative transfer model has been developed to examine radiative temperature perturbations. As was anticipated, the global temperature perturbations are negligible. However, in the polar region the impact is probably nonnegligible, the temperature decrease being of the order of a few tenths of a degree. The climatological implications of the layer on the polar region are discussed.