Identification

Title

Seasonal dependence of northern high-latitude upper thermospheric winds: A quiet time climatological study based on ground-based and space-based measurements

Abstract

This paper investigates the large-scale seasonal dependence of geomagnetically quiet time, northern high-latitude F region thermospheric winds by combining extensive observations from eight ground-based (optical remote sensing) and three space-based (optical remote sensing and in situ) instruments. To provide a comprehensive picture of the wind morphology, data are assimilated into a seasonal empirical vector wind model as a function of season, latitude, and local time in magnetic coordinates. The model accurately represents the behavior of the constituent data sets. There is good general agreement among the various data sets, but there are some major offsets between GOCE and the other data sets, especially on the duskside. The assimilated wind patterns exhibit a strong and large duskside anticyclonic circulation cell, sharp latitudinal gradients in the duskside auroral zone, strong antisunward winds in the polar cap, and a weaker tendency toward a dawnside cyclonic circulation cell. The high-latitude wind system shows a progressive intensification of wind patterns from winter to equinox to summer. The latitudinal extent of the duskside circulation cell does not depend strongly on season. Zonal winds show a mainly diurnal variation (two extrema) around polar and middle latitudes and semidiurnal variation (four extrema) at auroral latitudes; meridional winds are primarily diurnal at all high latitudes. The strength of zonal winds channeling through the auroral zone on the duskside is strongest in the summer season. The vorticity of the wind pattern increases from winter to summer, whereas divergence is maximum in equinox. In all three seasons, divergence is weaker than vorticity.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7xs5x66

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2017-02-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact