edu.ucar.opensky::articles:25335 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-24T22:45:49.649491 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7bg2sp9 The molecular oxygen density structure of the lower thermosphere as seen by GOLD and models 2022-04-28T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7bg2sp9 https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL098800 Greer, K. author Laskar, F. author Eastes, R. author Lumpe, J. author Liu, Hanli author Pedatella, Nicholas M. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher Oxygen chemistry plays a central role in the production of plasma in the ionosphere. While molecular oxygen (O-2) is the third most abundant constituent in the thermosphere, molecular and atomic oxygen densities are difficult to quantify accurately. Consequently, modeled densities have significant uncertainties. New stellar occultation measurements from the Global-scale Observations of Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission provide data that can quantify, with high precision, the O-2 density and its daily and local time variations. These observations are compared to the Mass Spectrometer Incoherent Scatter radar family of empirical models and the physics based Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with thermosphere-ionosphere eXtension. While GOLD observations show a strong diurnal structure with local time, the models display a semidiurnal structure in O-2. The local time structure of O-2 is critical for accurately modeling plasma densities in the ionosphere. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. None eng geoscientificInformation