Polar Mesospheric Cloud Modeling and Seasonal Forecasts with Satellite Data

Polar mesospheric clouds (PMC) inhabit a thin layer between approximately 80 and 85 km altitude during summer and are generally confined to the region north of 50deg latitude. These clouds are persistent throughout much of the summer, and past studies have determined that PMC have become more widespread in recent decades. Since state-of-the-art high altitude radiance models have limited capabilities for representing structured phenomena - such as PMC - in radiative transfer calculations, and since PMC observations indicate a substantial radiative signature in infrared window bands, it is essential that high altitude modeling capabilities be expanded to account for these phenomena. We describe a system that serves as an add-on feature to high altitude radiance codes by correcting the calculations for the unmodeled PMC radiative signature.