Detection of Molecular Scattering Field by Polarization Analysis of Sky Background During the Transitive Twilight and Temperature Measurements near the Stratopause

TL;DR

This paper presents a polarization-based method to detect single molecular scattering in the upper atmosphere during twilight, enabling temperature measurements near the stratopause and analysis of multiple scattering effects.

Contribution

It introduces a novel polarization measurement technique during transitive twilight for atmospheric layer temperature estimation and scattering analysis.

Findings

Effective detection of single molecular scattering during twilight.

Temperature measurements near the stratopause achieved.

Quantitative assessment of multiple scattering contributions.

Abstract

The simplest version of the method of detection of single molecular scattering basing on the polarization measurements of the twilight sky background by all-sky cameras is considered. The method can be used during the transitive twilight (solar zenith angles 94-98 degrees), when effective single scattering takes place in upper stratosphere and lower mesosphere. The application of the method to the multi-year measurements in the vicinity of Moscow and Apatity allows determination of temperature of these atmospheric layers and estimation of contribution and properties of multiple scattering during the transitive twilight period.