Optical remote sensing of penetration into the lower thermosphere of neutral wind and composition perturbations driven by magnetospheric forcing

Other

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

[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.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Optical remote sensing of penetration into the lower thermosphere of neutral wind and composition perturbations driven by magnetospheric forcing does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Optical remote sensing of penetration into the lower thermosphere of neutral wind and composition perturbations driven by magnetospheric forcing, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Optical remote sensing of penetration into the lower thermosphere of neutral wind and composition perturbations driven by magnetospheric forcing will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-873707

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.