Identification

Title

A comparison of quiet time thermospheric winds between FPI observations and model calculations

Abstract

We investigate local time, seasonal, and longitudinal variations of thermospheric horizontal winds at midlatitudes during geomagnetically quiet times by comparing winds from observations, an empirical wind model, and a numerical model. The observations are from three Fabry-Perot interferometers (FPIs), the empirical model is the most recent version of the Horizontal Wind Model 14 (HWM14), and the numerical model is the Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Electrodynamics General Circulation Model of the National Center for Atmospheric Research. The three FPI stations are located at Xinglong (geographically 40.2 degrees N, 117.4 degrees E; geomagnetically 35 degrees N) and Kelan (geographically 38.7 degrees N, 111.6 degrees E; geomagnetically 34 degrees N) in China and at Millstone Hill (geographically 42.6 degrees N, 71.5 degrees W; geomagnetically 52 degrees N) in United States. The results show that the winds at Millstone Hill are more southward and more westward than those at Xinglong and Kelan in all seasons; the directional reversal time of zonal winds is also earlier at Millstone Hill than at the other two stations. Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Electrodynamics General Circulation Model shows better agreement with FPI observations in the winter months compared to summer, and in general best replicates those measurements taken at Millstone Hill. HWM14 generally produces agreement with quiet time midlatitude neutral wind measurements, with HWM14 meridional winds comparing very well throughout most of a year. HWM14 model-data discrepancies occur mainly in the zonal winds during the winter season. Overall, HWM14 predicts MH FPI observations slightly better than it does for the data from the two Asian stations.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7pv6p9j

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

2018-08-27T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

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