Seasonal Variation of Thermospheric Composition Observed by NASA GOLD

We examine characteristics of the seasonal variation of thermospheric composition using column number density ratio ∑O/N2 observed by the NASA Global Observations of Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission from low-mid to mid-high latitudes. We found that the ∑O/N2 seasonal variation is hemispherically asymmetric: in the southern hemisphere, it exhibits the well-known annual and seminal pattern, with highs near the equinoxes, and primary and secondary lows near the solstices. In the northern hemisphere, it is dominated by an annual variation, with a minor semiannual component with the highs shifting towards the wintertime. We also found that the durations of the December and June solstice seasons in terms of thermospheric composition are highly variable with longitude. Our hypothesis is that ion-neutral collisional heating in the equatorial ionization anomaly region and auroral Joule heating play substantial roles in this longitudinal dependency.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5065/p3wa-1q97

Temporal Range

2018-10-05 to 2021-09-30

Temporal Resolution

1.0 day

Spatial Resolution

5.0 degreesLatitude
5.0 degreesLongitude

Related Links

N/A

GCMD Science Keywords

• Sun-Earth Interactions > Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Dynamics > Ion Chemistry/Ionization
• Sun-Earth Interactions > Solar Energetic Particle Properties > Particle Density

GCMD Instruments

• Earth Remote Sensing Instruments > Passive Remote Sensing > Spectrometers/Radiometers > Spectrometers > Gold > Global-Scale Observations Of The Limb And Disk

File Media Types

• application/octet-stream

Support Contact

Liying Qian
UCAR/NCAR - High Altitude Observatory
lqian@ucar.edu

Data Curator

GDEX Curator
UCAR/NCAR - GDEX
gdex@ucar.edu

Credit

NASA NNH19ZDA001N-HSR, NASA 80NSSC18K0648, NASA 80NSSC19K0278, NASA NNH19ZDA001N-HGIO

Legal Constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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None

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Version History

1.0