Rocket-borne in situ measurements of meteor smoke: Charging properties and implications for seasonal variation

The observations show a large variability from flight to flight. Part of this variability can be attributed to differences in the charging of MSPs during day and night. Finally we find that MSP volume density in summer can exceed that during September.

Analyzing model simulations of the global transport and microphysics of these particles, we show that our observations are in agreement with the model predictions, even though number densities of particles with radii >1 nm, which have long been thought to be suitable condensation nuclei for mesospheric ice particles, show the opposite behavior. It is shown that this discrepancy is caused by the fact that even larger particles (?3 nm) dominate the volume density and that transport affects these different particle sizes in different ways.

These results reinforce previous model findings according to which seasonal MSP variability is mainly driven by the global circulation and corresponding transport.