Identification

Title

The molecular oxygen density structure of the lower thermosphere as seen by GOLD and models

Abstract

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.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7bg2sp9

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

2022-04-28T00:00:00Z

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