Support proposal for refurbishment and replacement of a micorwave spectrometer to be used in the priority programme CAWSES

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

On June 29, 2004, the senat of the German Science Foundation (DFG = Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) announced a new priority programme called Climate and Weather of the Sun-Earth System (CAWSES). Thereafter several proposals from individual scientists were submitted for this programme. The review and selection of proposals took place in a meeting in Walberberg (close to Cologne) on January 26-27, 2005. It turned out during this meeting that a majority of accepted proposals have an urgent request for trace gas measurements in the upper atmosphere. Special interest exists for water vapor measurements in the stratosphere and mesosphere at mid and polar latitudes (see section 2 for more details). The Max-Planck-Institute for Solar System Research in Katlenburg-Lindau (MRS) owns a ground based microwave spectrometer at the ALOMAR observatory in Northern Norway (69°N) which is the only system world wide which is capable to measure water vapour profiles up to the upper mesosphere at polar latitudes. This instrument is in operation since approximately 10 years and has led to some important scientific results and publications, for example the observation that shuttle launches can enhance ice particle generation in the upper atmosphere. This result was highlighted on the title page of Geophysical Research Letters, volume 30, No. 10, from Mai 15, 2003 (see enclosure).The instrument is now in continuous operation for more than 100000 hours and shows severe deterioration. We reckon that the system will fail within the next months. This would terminate a unique data sequence and would stop measurements which are urgently needed for the priority programme, especially on the solar cycle variation of water vapour concentrations in the mesosphere. We hereby apply for financial support amounting to 209 k¿ to refurbish and repair the existing microwave spectrometer. As will be explained in section 5 the MPS significantly contributes to this task. However, since the exploration of the terrestrial atmosphere is no longer in the scientific focus of MPS, external support is required.