Observations of Lower Thermospheric Nitric Oxide During the Current Solar Minimum

Details Observations of Lower Thermospheric Nitric Oxide During the Current Solar Minimum Observations of Lower Thermospheric Nitric Oxide During the Current Solar Minimum

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmsa31b1431t&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #SA31B-1431

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

[7500] Solar Physics, Astrophysics, And Astronomy

Scientific paper

Nitric oxide (NO) is a key minor constituent in the lower thermosphere. Of particular importance is its role in the energy balance in that altitude region. NO is produced through the reaction of excited atomic nitrogen with molecular oxygen. Thus its production is very sensitive to those energy sources able to break the strong molecular nitrogen bond. These include solar soft X-rays and precipitating energetic particles. Nitric oxide emits efficiently in the infrared and is an important cooling mechanism in the lower thermosphere. The abundance of NO is thus both a direct response to recent energy deposition as well as a key mechanism by which the upper atmosphere releases that energy. The current extended solar minimum is an interesting case study for NO and its role in the upper atmosphere. Reduction in energy deposition to the thermosphere leads to cooler temperatures. But the production of NO is also reduced and thus the cooling efficiency of the atmosphere is reduced as well. Thus NO may in some way control the minimum temperatures reached. For this reason, understanding the response of NO to this unique extended solar minimum is of significant importance. The Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE) instrument was launched on-board the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite on April 25, 2007. It is currently in its third year of operation. SOFIE is a 16 channel differential absorption radiometer using the solar occultation technique to measure ice and environmental properties at a range of altitudes, and in particular the mesopause region. One of the constituents measured by SOFIE is NO in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere to about 130 km. The AIM orbit and the solar occultation technique confine observations to latitudes of 65 to 85 degrees in each hemisphere and varying with season. In this talk we overview the SOFIE observations of NO in the southern hemisphere lower thermosphere and provide a preliminary description of its behavior during this curious extended solar minimum.

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