NDMC (Network for the Detection of Mesopause Change) is a global program coordinated jointly by DLR-DFD and the Argentinean organization CONICET/IAFE with the initial mission to promote international cooperation among research groups investigating the mesopause region (80-100 km) with the goal of early identification of changing climate signals. This program involves the coordinated study of atmospheric variability at all time scales, the exchange of existing know-how, and the coordinated development of improved observation, analysis techniques and modeling. The initial emphasis is on mesopause region airglow techniques utilizing the existing ground-based and satellite measurement capabilities. Participation or association of researchers using other techniques in the same altitude region is actively developed. NDMC’s current focus is on documenting climate change, on understanding coupling processes observable at the mesopause level and will interface with related activities throughout the atmosphere. It is affiliated with the Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) program of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and with the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC). The data archiving and data management for NDMC is performed by the ICSU/WMO World Data Center for Remote Sensing of the Atmosphere (WDC-RSAT) which also serves as NDMC’s communication platform.
The European part of NDMC contributes to the recently funded EU-project ARISE (Atmospheric dynamics Research InfraStructure in Europe) which is coordinated by the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (CEA), France. ARISE is an European FP7 design study project for the monitoring of atmospheric disturbances related to extreme events, large scale atmospheric dynamics and their effects on weather and climate. ARISE proposes to design a new infrastructure that integrates different existing atmospheric observation networks to provide a new 3D image of the atmosphere in the different atmospheric layers from ground to mesosphere with unprecedented spatio-temporal resolution. Twelve organizations in Europe are involved including participants of the infrasound network of the International Monitoring System (IMS) developed for verification of the CTBT as well as the lidar network of NDACC and the European airglow community of the NDMC. DLR-DFD - as the coordinator of NDMC - is one the partners.