Remote Sensing of Thermospheric Nitric Oxide as an Indicator of Auroral Energy Input

Details Remote Sensing of Thermospheric Nitric Oxide as an Indicator of Auroral Energy Input Remote Sensing of Thermospheric Nitric Oxide as an Indicator of Auroral Energy Input

May 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agusm..sa41a04b&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Spring Meeting 2001, abstract #SA41A-04

Physics

0355 Thermosphere--Composition And Chemistry, 0358 Thermosphere--Energy Deposition

Scientific paper

The importance of nitric oxide in the lower thermosphere has long been recognized. It plays a strong role in the thermospheric energy balance as it emits efficiently in the infrared, it is the terminal ion in the lower ionosphere, and if transported to lower altitudes will catalytically destroy ozone. Also important however is that NO serves as a strong indicator of energy deposition to the lower thermosphere. NO is primarily produced through the reaction of excited atomic nitrogen with molecular oxygen. One of the primary loss mechanisms of NO is photodissociation by solar ultraviolet irradiance. In order to produce the excited atomic nitrogen atom, the strong N2 molecular bond must be broken. It has been shown that at high latitudes, auroral electrons and the energetic secondary electrons provide the source of energy that leads to the large amounts of NO which are observed. Because the NO molecule has a lifetime of about one day, a high latitude observation of NO provides an indication of the integrated auroral energy deposition over the previous day. In this paper, we will present results of the response of NO to auroral energy input. We use a time-dependent thermospheric model that has auroral electrons and solar soft x-rays as energy inputs. We run the model for five days properly including the changing atmospheric and solar conditions during the day-night cycle. We have run the model at north and south latitudes of 55, 60, and 65 degrees for 12 days throughout the year spaced approximately 30 days apart. The model calculations show a strong seasonal variation of nitric oxide density for the same auroral electron input. The largest seasonal variation occurs at the highest latitudes. Using the results of the model calculation, we show how the nitric oxide density may be used to deduce the auroral electron energy input during the previous 24 hour period.

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