One main 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 changes of the climate by monitoring key parameters in the mesopause region such as temperatures, airglow brightness, and horizontal wind; identify and quantify the atmospheric variability at different time scales such as seasonal variations and solar cycle effects.
- Detection of solar activity effects at all time scales (“Space Weather”)
- Contribute to the early warning of natural hazards like thunderstorms, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis. 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.
- Energy transfer e.g. by turbulent processes
- Non-linear wave-wave interaction
- Validation of satellite instruments and its use for intercomparison of ground-based instruments
- Cooperation in the development of instrumentation