Meteorological Conditions and Polar Stratospheric Clouds over Yakutsk in Winter 2004/05

A. A. Cheremisin, A. V. Kushnarenko, V. N. Marichev, S. V. Nikolashkin, and P. V. Novikov

Regular observations of polar stratospheric clouds were started at a lidar stratospheric station in the city of Yakutsk. According to lidar measurements in the winter of 2004/05, thick aerosol layers in the lower stratosphere appeared over this region quite frequently. They were episodically observed as pearl clouds. In November 2004, polar stratospheric clouds were observed at the stratospheric temperatures that were much higher than those at which particles of the polar stratospheric clouds could condense. Analysis of air-mass trajectories that simultaneously passed over Yakutsk at different altitudes on the days of polar stratospheric cloud observations showed that clouds could be formed over the Norwegian Sea at altitudes of about 18–21 km, where the stratosphere was the coldest, and then were transported to Yakutsk by wind during 4–5 days.