Meteoric material entering the Earth's upper atmosphere is thought to give rise to a global layer of smoke particles in the mesosphere. These particles have been suggested to play a key role for noctilu-cent clouds, polar mesosphere summer echoes, charge balance, and neutral chemistry. The MAGIC campaign was conducted from Esrange in January 2005 to address fundamental questions about these smoke particles. A basic objective was to sample the particles and to take them to the laboratory for further analysis. In order to relate the particle distribution to the atmospheric circulation, also detailed measurements on atmospheric dynamics and related parameters were an integral part of the campaign. In this paper, we give an overview of the MAGIC campaign and the basic ideas behind it.
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