Identification

Title

Vertical variations in thermospheric O/N2 and the relationship between O and N2 perturbations during a geomagnetic storm

Abstract

The ratio of O to N-2 number densities (O/N-2) at different altitudes is an important parameter in describing thermospheric neutral composition changes and their effects on the ionosphere during geomagnetic storms. However, storm-induced vertical variations in O/N-2 and its dependence on the O and N-2 perturbations are still not fully understood. Here, the Thermosphere/Ionosphere Electrodynamics General Circulation Model simulations were used to investigate the responses of thermospheric composition at different pressure levels to the super geomagnetic storm occurred on November 20 and 21 in 2003. Our analysis shows that the behaviors of O/N-2 perturbations on different pressure levels are similar above similar to 180 km altitude. In the middle and low thermosphere of below similar to 300 km, the storm-time O/N-2 decrease is mainly caused by a large reduction of O number density. However, N-2 enhancement plays a vital role in O/N-2 decreases in the upper thermosphere. The O/N-2 enhancement is mainly attributed to the N-2 decreases at all pressure levels. The changes of O and N-2 number densities at a constant pressure level can be explained by the perturbations of their mass mixing ratio (mmr) and total mass density (rho). The regions of the O/N-2 decrease are characterized by the O mmr decrease and N-2 mmr enhancement, whereas the regions of the O/N-2 increase are characterized by the O mmr increase and N-2 mmr decrease. The rho value that shows the decrease globally at most pressure levels during the storm either enhance or reduce the O and N-2 perturbations.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7183bk3

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

2023-10-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

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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