| Indicator Definition | Midwinter atmospheric temperatures at ~87km above Davis station, Antarctica, are determined from hydroxyl airglow emissions. The temperature reported is determined over the interval, day-of-year (DOY) 106 to DOY 258.
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Responsible Organisation |
 Australian Antarctic Division (details)
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| Custodians |
GARY BURNS
gary.burns@aad.gov.au
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INVESTIGATOR TECHNICAL CONTACT
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Australian Antarctic Division 203 Channel Highway Kingston Tasmania 7050 Australia
Ph +61 3 6232 3381
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JOHN FRENCH
John.French@aad.gov.au
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TECHNICAL CONTACT INVESTIGATOR
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Australian Antarctic Division 203 Channel Highway Kingston Tasmania 7050 Australia
Ph +61 3 6232 3480
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| Theme Area |
Atmosphere
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| Indicator Type |
Condition
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Criteria the Indicator Satisfies |
The following 12 out of 15 criteria
| 1. | Serve as a robust indicator of environmental change | | 2. | Reflect a fundamental or highly-valued aspect of the environment or an important environmental issue | | 3. | Be either national in scope or applicable to regional environmental issues of national significance | | 4. | Provide an early warning of potential problems | | 5. | Be capable of being monitored to provide statistically verifiable and reproducible data that shows trends over time and, preferably, apply to a broad range of environmental regions | | 6. | Be scientifically credible | | 7. | Be easy to understand | | 9. | Be cost-effective | | 10. | Have relevance to policy and management needs | | 11. | Contribute to monitoring of progress towards implementing commitments in nationally important environmental policies | | 13. | Contribute to the fulfillment of reporting obligations under international agreements | | 15. | Where possible and appropriate, be consistent and comparable with other countries’ and state and territory indicators |
For details of indicators, see the State of Environment Bibliography
entries 16336 and 16337
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| Date Input |
Yearly measurements
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| Monitoring Location |
Davis (details)
Geographic Coverage is
Latitude (-68.5767 to -68.5766)
Longitude (77.9673 to 77.9674)
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| Rationale For Indicator Selection | Over the last century the concentration of greenhouse gases has risen in the atmosphere. Greenhouse gases result in warming of the lower atmosphere but enhanced cooling of the upper atmosphere. Enhanced cooling rates of the upper atmosphere may provide a more readily measurable indicator of 'global warming'.
Midwinter hydroxyl layer temperatures, give a proxy temperature for an altitude of ~87km (just below the coldest region of the atmosphere in winter). Associated with anthropogenic greenhouse gas increases, this tenuous region of the atmosphere is expected to cool, with the magnitude of the cooling being significantly larger than the warming at ground level. When properly measured and interpreted, this may be the atmospheric region where variations in trends associated with anthropogenic climate change can be most rapidly and conclusively determined.
Hydroxyl airglow is emitted from an ~8km wide layer, centred at ~87 km.
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| Design and Strategy For Indicator Monitoring Program | Spatial Scale: Point value at Davis station, Antarctica
Frequency: Winter averages
Measurement Technique: Hydroxyly airglow rotational temperatures are determined by the standard technique involvinging the ratios of the intensity of hydroxyl airglow line emissions. The difficulties encountered and methods adopted at Davis are detailed in Greet et al., 1998. Refinement to the absolute temperatures determined by this technique have been published by French et al., 2000.
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| Research Issues | The values continue to be refined, though their relative difference between years is well quantified (see error estimates). The potential exists for determining some values at earlier epochs if instrumental uncertainties can be better quantified. This work is underway.
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| Data |
Timespan: 1990 to 2008.
Number of data points: 16.
To view or download any of the data, you must be logged into the
Data Centre Portal.
If you return to this indicator, you will find a Search Data link that will allow you to view or extract
the data for this indicator.
Davis: Absolute temperature

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Data Quality, Interpretation and Analysis of Indicator Data |
Measurements of winter mean hydroxyl layer (~87 km) temperatures above Davis station, Antarctica are to be compared with measurements at other sites around the globe. Excessive cooling rates, significantly exceeding model predictions, of up to 0.7 K per annum have been reported (Golitsyn et al., 1996) from northern hemisphere measurements of hydroxyl airglow. Initial determinations must derive the solar cycle variation at this site, then a comparison can be made with the excessive cooling rates (-0.7 Kpa) reported in the literature (by around 2006) and eventually with model-expected cooling associated with greenhouse gas increases (by around 2012). Variations in rates of cooling (lower atmosphere warming) associated with moderation of greenhouse gas emissions will hopefully be measurable thereafter.
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| Data Usage Constraints |
Please follow instructions listed in the citation reference provided at the URL below when using these data.
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| Data Distribution |
DATA OFFICER AADC
metadata@aad.gov.au
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Australian Antarctic Division 203 Channel Highway Kingston Tasmania 7050 Australia
Ph +61 3 6232 3244
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| Data Access Constraints |
These data are publicly available for download from the URL given below.
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| Custodian Evaluation |
| Date entered | Evaluation |
| 15-Apr-2002 |
The yearly winter temperature data at ~87 km above Davis have been evaluated to determine a solar cycle
(11 year, natural cyclic trend evaluted as K per sfu [=solar flux unit. Multiply by 120 to express
this value as K per average solar cycle) and a linear long-term trend.
[1990, 1995-2000]:
solar cycle: 0.067 +/- (std. error) 0.009 K per sfu [=~8 K per solar cycle].
lower 95% confidence limit value: 0.045 K per sfu.
upper 95% confidence level value: 0.090 K per sfu.
linear trend: -0.47 +/- (std error) 0.13 K per annum.
lower 95% confidence limit value: -0.81 K per annum.
upper 95% confidence limit value: -0.13 K per annum.
That looks like 'cooling is weakly significant'. I would not be prepared to support these results from
the present data because an assumption of the multiple-regression analysis used to derive the
values listed is that the temperature from each year is known to the same accuracy. However, the
1990 datum is the least reliable datum, but it presently dominates the trend estimate. It is necessary
to wait until we reach the minimum of the present solar cycle (~5 years) to be confident that uncertainties
in the 1990 datum are not the source of the excessive cooling. The significance of the 1990 datum can
be gauged by removing it from the analysis.
[1995-2000]:
solar cycle: 0.049 +/- (std. error) 0.009 K per sfu. [=~6 K per solar cycle]
lower 95% confidence limit value: 0.018 K per sfu.
upper 95% confidence level value: 0.080 K per sfu.
linear trend: -0.003 +/- (std error) 0.28 K per annum.
lower 95% confidence limit value: -0.78 K per annum.
upper 95% confidence limit value: +0.77 K per annum.
No significant cooling or warming trend is apparent from the most reliable, recent 6 years of data.
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| 8-Nov-2002 |
| Condition scale - 3 |
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| 1 - the environment degraded to the point where rehabilitation is impossible |
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7 - the environment is pristine, in perfect condition, no anthropogenic influences |
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| State of Knowledge scale - 2 |
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1 - Poor |
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7 - Excellent |
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| 11-Sep-2003 |
The absolute value (and standard error) for 2002 are potentially seriously misleading if this value is used for trend estimates. Our spectral calibrations for 2002 were much more variable than for recent, previous years. We have tracked a source of this variability to the photomultiplier cooler which performed poorly (variably) during 2002. We estimate that individual nightly average temperatures may be in error in our present analysis by up to 4K. Normal errors from the spectral calibration amount to less than 0.5K. If we can commit time to investigating and correcting for this variation, we may be able to improve the accuracy of the 2002 value (...but will not be able to obtain the accuracy of previous or future years). It is essential to note that there is this degree of uncertainty in the present 2002 value.
| Condition scale - 4 - fair condition |
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| 1 - the environment degraded to the point where rehabilitation is impossible |
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7 - the environment is pristine, in perfect condition, no anthropogenic influences |
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| State of Knowledge scale - 4 - Fair |
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1 - Poor |
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7 - Excellent |
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For definitions of the Scale categories, consult the
Explanation of the Status Categories
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| Related resources |
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| Metadata
SOE_hydroxyl - Midwinter atmospheric temperature at altitude ~87km |
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Project 701 - Long-term monitoring of the mesopause region via hydroxyl emissions at Davis |
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Scientific Bibliography 17315
- French, W.J.R., G.B. Burns, K.Finlayson, P.A. Greet, R.P. Lowe and P.F.B. Williams. (2000) Hydroxyl (6-2) airglow emission intensity ratios for rotational temperature determination. Annales Geophysicae, 18: 1293-1303. |
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Scientific Bibliography 17316
- Golitsyn, G.S., A.I. Semenov, N.N. Shefov, L.M. Fishcova, E.V. Lysenko, S.P. Perov. (1996) Long-term temperature trend in the middle and upper atmosphere Geophysical Research Letters, 23(24):1741-1744. |
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Scientific Bibliography 17317
- Greet, P.A, W.J.R. French, G.B. Burns, P.F.B. Williams, R.P. Lowe and K. Finlayson. (1998) OH(6-2) spectra and rotation temperature measurements at Davis, Antarctica. Annales Geophysicae, 16:79-89. |
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SOE Indicator 1
- Monthly mean air temperatures at Australian Antarctic Stations |
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SOE Indicator 2
- Highest monthly air temperatures at Australian Antarctic Stations |
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SOE Indicator 3
- Lowest monthly air temperatures at Australian Antarctic Stations |
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SOE Indicator 4
- Monthly mean lower stratospheric temperatures above Australian Antarctic Stations |
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SOE Indicator 5
- Monthly mean mid-tropospheric temperatures above Australian Antarctic Stations |
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SOE Indicator 11
- Atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gas species |
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SOE Indicator 12
- Noctilucent cloud observations at Davis |
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SOE Indicator 13
- Polar stratospheric cloud observations at Davis |
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SOE Indicator 15
- Stratopause region parameters for Davis |
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| Parameters |
The properties link can be used to view details of the parameters measured for this indicator.
| Parameter Name | Unit of measure | Properties |
| Absolute temperature |
Kelvin |
(properties) |
The following parameters and/or sensor notes are from the metadata record.
Parameters -
EARTH SCIENCE > ATMOSPHERE > ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY > HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
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| Related URL's |
http://data.aad.gov.au/aadc/portal/download_file.cfm?file_id=2497 Download point for the data - excel spreadsheet of data
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