The occurrence altitudes of middle atmospheric temperature inversions and mesopause over low-latitude Indian sector

Abstract. We study the occurrence characteristics of mesospheric inversion layers (MILs) in the 60–105 km altitude region over the low-latitude Indian sector. We note that lower inversions in the mesospheric temperatures occur in the 70–75 km altitude regions while the upper inversions occur in 90–95 km altitude regions. The mesopause altitude is mostly noted to be ~ 98 km with the night-time mesopause (particularly in the year 2002) showing a small peak in the mesopause occurrence at ~ 75 km altitude. We note higher occurrence rate of MILs during high solar activity year compared to low solar activity year. It is also observed that night time MILs show a systematic seasonal variability, with higher occurrence of single and double temperature inversions during equinoxes.