Identification

Title

Intraannual variability of tides in the thermosphere from model simulations and in situ satellite observations

Abstract

In this paper, we provide insights into limitations imposed by current satellite-based strategies to delineate tidal variability in the thermosphere, as well as the ability of a state-of-the-art model to replicate thermospheric tidal determinations. Toward this end, we conducted a year-long thermosphere-ionosphere-mesosphere-electrodynamics general circulation model (TIME-GCM) simulation for 2009, which is characterized by low solar and geomagnetic activity. In order to account for tropospheric waves and tides propagating upward into the ∼30--400 km model domain, we used 3-hourly MERRA (Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis for Research and Application) reanalysis data. We focus on exospheric tidal temperatures, which are also compared with 72 day mean determinations from combined Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) and Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite observations to assess the model's capability to capture the observed tidal signatures and to quantify the uncertainties associated with the satellite exospheric temperature determination technique. We found strong day-to-day tidal variability in TIME-GCM that is smoothed out when averaged over as few as ten days. TIME-GCM notably overestimates the 72 day mean eastward propagating tides observed by CHAMP/GRACE, while capturing many of the salient features of other tidal components. However, the CHAMP/GRACE tidal determination technique only provides a gross climatological representation, underestimates the majority of the tidal components in the climatological spectrum, and moreover fails to characterize the extreme variability that drives the dynamics and electrodynamics of the ionosphere-thermosphere system. A multisatellite mission that samples at least six local times simultaneously is needed to provide this quantification.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7fb544z

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

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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

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South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

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End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2015-01-01T00:00:00Z

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Constraints related to access and use

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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