2,- 1The Catholic University of America, Institute for Astrophysics and Computational Sciences, Physics Department, Washington, United States of America (kutepov@cua.edu)
- 2LMD/IPSL, Sorbonne Université, UPMC Univ Paris 06, CNRS, École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
- 3Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Göttingen, Germany
- 4Center for Geospace Studies, SRI International, Menlo Park, CA, USA
Collisions between CO2 molecules and O(3P) atoms dominate the excitation of CO2 in the MLT and its 15 µm emission. However, the current non-LTE models of CO2 are inconsistent with laboratory and space observations of this emission. We have proposed a new model for the non-LTE 15 µm cooling of the MLT [1], which is consistent with both types of observation and shows that standard non-LTE models significantly overestimate this cooling. This casts serious doubt on the widespread belief that the 15 µm emission is the primary cooling mechanism of the MLT. A significant reduction in 15 µm cooling will have a significant impact on the modelling of the current MLT and the estimation of its future changes due to increasing CO2.
This research was funded by US NSF grants AGS-2312191/92 and AGS-2125760, and by NASA grant 80NSSC21K0664.
1. Kutepov et al., Remote Sens., 2025, 17(11), 1896. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs17111896
How to cite: Kutepov, A., Feofilov, A., Rezac, L., and Kalogerakis, K.: New Model of the 15 µm Cooling of the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-13388, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-13388, 2026.
