Identification

Title

Impacts of lower thermospheric atomic oxygen on thermospheric dynamics and composition using the Global Ionosphere Thermosphere model

Abstract

The exchange of energy between the lower atmosphere and the ionosphere thermosphere system is not well understood. One of the parameters that is important in the lower thermosphere is atomic oxygen. It has recently been observed that atomic oxygen is higher in summer at similar to 95 km. In this study, we investigate the sensitivity of the upper thermosphere to lower thermospheric atomic oxygen using the Global Ionosphere Thermosphere Model (GITM). We use the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with thermosphere and ionosphere extension (WACCM-X) to drive the lower atmospheric boundary of atomic oxygen in GITM between similar to 95 and 100 km and compare the results with the current mass spectrometer incoherent scatter (MSIS) driven GITM. MSIS has higher atomic oxygen in the winter hemisphere while WACCM-X has higher atomic oxygen in the summer hemisphere. The reversal of atomic oxygen distribution affects the pressure distribution between 100 and 120 km, such that the hemisphere with larger O number density has stronger equatorward winds, and lower temperature mainly due to adiabatic and radiative cooling. This affects thermospheric scale heights such that the hemisphere with more O has lower N-2 and thus enhanced O/N-2. This behavior is observed in the opposite hemisphere when MSIS is used as the lower boundary for GITM. Overall, O/N-2 for WACCM-X driven GITM matches better with the global ultraviolet imager (GUVI) data. We find that the impact of lower thermospheric atomic oxygen on upper thermosphere is not just through diffusive equilibrium but also through secondary effects on winds and temperature.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7j106g6

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

2020-09-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

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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