Identification

Title

Spatial distributions of nitric oxide in the Antarctic wintertime middle atmosphere during geomagnetic storms

Abstract

Energetic electron precipitation leads to increased nitric oxide (NO) production in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere. NO distributions in the wintertime, high-latitude Southern Hemisphere atmosphere during geomagnetic storms are investigated. NO partial columns in the upper mesosphere at altitudes 70-90 km and in the lower thermosphere at 90-110 km have been derived from observations made by the Solar Occultation For Ice Experiment (SOFIE) on board the Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) satellite. The SOFIE NO measurements during 17 geomagnetic storms in 2008-2014 have been binned into selected geomagnetic latitude and geographic latitude/longitude ranges. The regions above Antarctica showing the largest instantaneous NO increases coincide with high fluxes of 30-300 keV precipitating electrons from measurements by the second-generation Space Environment Monitor (SEM-2) Medium Energy Proton and Electron Detector (MEPED) instrument on the Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellites (POES). Significant NO increases over the Antarctic Peninsula are likely due to precipitation of >30 keV electrons from the radiation belt slot region. NO transport is estimated using Horizontal Wind Model (HWM14) calculations. In the upper mesosphere strong eastward winds (daily mean zonal wind speed similar to 20-30 m s(-1) at 80 km) during winter transport NO-enriched air away from source regions 1-3 days following the storms. Mesospheric winds also introduce NO-poor air into the source regions, quenching initial NO increases. Higher up, in the lower thermosphere, weaker eastward winds (similar to 5-10 m s(-1) at 100 km) are less effective at redistributing NO zonally.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7db8546

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

2020-07-06T00:00:00Z

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