Other
Scientific paper
Dec 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011agufmsa22a..05c&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2011, abstract #SA22A-05
Other
[0355] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Thermosphere: Composition And Chemistry, [0358] Atmospheric Composition And Structure / Thermosphere: Energy Deposition, [2427] Ionosphere / Ionosphere/Atmosphere Interactions, [3369] Atmospheric Processes / Thermospheric Dynamics
Scientific paper
Numerous observations of thermospheric neutral winds at altitudes of 240 km and higher clearly show wind structures occurring at auroral latitudes in response to magnetospheric forcing. It is also known from observations that magnetospheric forcing is not a major driver of winds down at mesopause heights and below. Because it is difficult to measure winds in the intervening "transition region" between these height regimes, very little is known about how deeply the magnetospherically driven neutral wind structures penetrate into the lower thermosphere, what factors affect this penetration, and what consequences it may have for transport of chemical species. Here we will show neutral wind maps obtained at F-region and E-region heights in the auroral zone using Fabry-Perot Doppler spectroscopy of the 630 nm and 558 nm optical emissions. Although thermospheric neutral winds are smoothed by viscosity and inertia, observed responses to magnetospheric forcing still include wind responses on time scales as short as 10 minutes or less, and on length scales shorter than 100 km horizontally and 5 km vertically. The data also show that the degree of penetration of magnetospheric forcing into the lower thermospheric wind field is highly variable from day to day. Signatures of magnetospheric forcing are sometimes seen at altitudes as low as 120 km, whereas at other times the E-region does not seem to respond at all. Possible links will be explored between this variability and the day to day differences seen in the column integrated thermospheric [O]/[N2] ratio over Alaska.
Anderson Christian
Conde M. G.
Hecht James H.
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