Abstract:
Mesospheric temperature inversion layer (MIL) refers to the positive temperature gradient inversion that is typically detected as a thermal structure in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere at lower and middle latitudes. Literature indicates that formation mechanisms of mesospheric inversion layers are highly spatio and temporal dependence, owning to this reason; we are highly motivated to study the statistical analysis of MILs. In this analysis we used 4 years (from 2012-2015) of SABER/TIMED satellite data covering the middle atmosphere from 30 to 100km over the Ethiopia region (90.14' N, 400.28' E). Investigations on mesospheric inversion layers are crucial to understand the structure and dynamics of middle atmosphere and modelling aspects. In this work, we investigated the statistical analysis of mesospheric inversion layers such as base height, amplitude, deviations and their relationship with ozone concentrations. The MILs characteristics and occurrence frequency shows semi-annual cycle with maxima near the equinoxes and minima at the solstices. The occurrences of MILs are more dominant in equinox than the solstice. Frequency of occurrence and amplitude of lower and upper mesospheric inversion layers show good correlation with average ozone concentrations in altitude range from 75-90km.