The nocturnal behavior of the hydroxyl layer as observed by ISAMS/UARS

The nocturnal variations of the mesospheric nightglow from the hydroxyl (OH) have been characterised using measurements taken by the ISAMS instrument on the UARS satellite. In this paper, the evolution with local time of the vertically integrated emission of the OH layer is presented. The measurements used in this study have close to full latitudinal coverage for both solstice and equinox conditions, and constitute an important database for future studies of the hydroxyl nightglow behavior using dynamical models.