Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 2989–3006, 2017 https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2989-2017 © Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Comparison of global datasets of sodium densities in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere from GOMOS, SCIAMACHY and OSIRIS measurements and WACCM model simulations from 2008 to 2012 Martin P. Langowski1, Christian von Savigny1, John P. Burrows2, Didier Fussen3, Erin C. M. Dawkins4,5, Wuhu Feng6,7, John M. C. Plane6, and Daniel R. Marsh8 1Institute of Physics, Ernst Moritz Arndt University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany 2Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany 3Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy, Brussels, Belgium 4NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA 5Department of Physics, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, USA 6School of Chemistry, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK 7National Center for Atmospheric Science, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, UK 8National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA Correspondence to: Martin P. Langowski (
[email protected]) Received: 22 December 2016 – Discussion started: 20 January 2017 Revised: 13 April 2017 – Accepted: 19 April 2017 – Published: 21 August 2017 Abstract. During the last decade, several limb sounding of the measured sodium profiles range from 89 to 95 km, satellites have measured the global sodium (Na) number den- whereas the model shows on average 2 to 4 km lower cen- sities in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). troid altitudes. This may be explained by the mesopause be- Datasets are now available from Global Ozone Monitor- ing 3 km lower in the WACCM simulations than in measure- ing by Occultation of Stars (GOMOS), the SCanning Imag- ments.