Objectives

The overall question is: Is the climate of the mesopause region
(80-100km) changing? If so, how and why?

The objectives of NDMC are

• Identify and quantify climate changes by monitoring key parameters
  such as temperatures in the mesopause region, airglow brightness for
  the early characterization of climate signals; Identify and quantify
  variability at different time scales such as seasonal variations and
  solar cycle effects.
   
• Detection of solar activity effects at all time scales (“Space Weather”)
   
• Answering other scientific questions related to atmospheric dynamics
  at different time scales including the description and the causes of the
  variability of periodic and quasi-periodic processes:
   
  • acoustic and gravity waves,
     
  • tides and planetary waves, and
     
  • seasonal and interannual variations. Also,
     
  • episodic events caused by external forcing shall be monitored.

     

• Validation of satellite instruments and its use for intercomparison of
  ground-based instruments
   
• Cooperation in the development of instrumentation