Deriving Thermospheric Temperature From Observations by the Global Ultraviolet Imager on the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics Satellite

This paper reports a preliminary result for estimating thermospheric temperature around 155 km from the N2 Lyman-Birge-Hopfield bands observed by TIMED/Global Ultraviolet Imager (GUVI). Atmospheric Ultraviolet Radiance Integrated Code model (Strickland et al., 1999, https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4073(98)00098-3) calculations indicate that the intensity ratio in the N2 Lyman-Birge-Hopfield (0,0) and (1,0) bands at 144.5- to 145.5- and 141.0- to 142.0-nm quasi-linearly depend on N2 rotational temperature. The observed ratios and the Atmospheric Ultraviolet Radiance Integrated Code results are used together to specify the thermospheric temperature around 155 km under sunlit conditions. The estimated temperature agrees fairly well with the neutral temperature at 155 km from WACCM-X model. The estimated temperature is also higher over the auroral oval and O/N2 depleted regions. Furthermore, meridional wave-like structures were clearly seen in the derived temperature and were likely caused by traveling atmospheric disturbances.