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Detailed Reference Information
Stevens et al. 2005
Stevens, M.H., Meier, R.R., Chu, X., DeLand, M.T. and Plane, J.M.C. (2005). Antarctic mesospheric clouds formed from space shuttle exhaust. Geophysical Research Letters 32: doi: 10.1029/2005GL023054. issn: 0094-8276.

New satellite observations reveal lower thermospheric transport of a space shuttle exhaust plume into the southern hemisphere two days after a January, 2003 launch. A day later, ground-based lidar observations in Antarctica identify iron ablated from the shuttle's main engines. Additional satellite observations of polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs) show a burst that constitutes 10--20% of the PMC mass between 65--79¿S during the 2002--2003 season, comparable to previous results for an Arctic shuttle plume. This shows that shuttle exhaust can be an important global source of both PMC formation and variability.

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Abstract

Keywords
Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Airglow and aurora, Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Radiation, transmission and scattering, Atmospheric Processes, Climate change and variability (1616, 1635, 3309, 4215, 4513), Atmospheric Processes, Clouds and aerosols, Atmospheric Processes, Thermospheric dynamics
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
http://www.agu.org/journals/gl/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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