Identification

Title

Tropospheric tides from 80 to 400 km: Propagation, interannual variability, and solar cycle effects

Abstract

Recent observations and model simulations demonstrate unequivocally that non-Sun-synchronous (nonmigrating) tides due to deep tropical convection produce large longitudinal and local time variations in bulk ionosphere-thermosphere-mesosphere properties. We thus stand at an exciting research frontier: understanding how persistent, large-scale tropospheric weather systems affect the geospace environment. Science challenge questions include: (1) How much of the tropospheric influence is due to tidal propagation directly into the upper thermosphere? (2) How large is the interannual and the solar cycle variability of the tides and what causes them? These questions are addressed using solar maximum to solar minimum tidal wind and temperature analyses from the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Electrodynamics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite in the mesosphere/lower thermosphere (MLT), and from the Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) satellite at ˜400 km. A physics-based empirical fit model is used to connect the TIMED with the CHAMP tides, i.e., to close the "thermospheric gap" of current spaceborne observations. Temperature, density, and horizontal and vertical wind results are presented for the important diurnal, eastward, wave number 3 (DE3) tide and may be summarized as follows. (1) Upper thermospheric DE3 tidal winds and temperatures are fully attributable to troposphere forcing. (2) A quasi-2-year 15-20% amplitude modulation in the MLT is presumably caused by the QBO. No perceivable solar cycle dependence is found in the MLT region. DE3 amplitudes in the upper thermosphere can increase by a factor of 3 in the zonal wind, by ˜60% in temperature and by a factor of 5 in density, caused by reduced dissipation above 120 km during solar minimum.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d78916w7

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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Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

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East bounding longitude

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Temporal reference

Temporal extent

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Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2009-12-08T00:00:00Z

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Conformity

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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

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