Bibliography
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Impact of the lower thermospheric winter-to-summer residual circulation on thermospheric composition
Author | Qian, Liying; Yue, Jia; |
Keywords | |
Abstract | Gravity wave forcing near the mesopause drives a summer-to-winter residual circulation in the mesosphere and a reversed, lower thermospheric winter-to-summer residual circulation. We conducted modeling studies to investigate how this lower thermospheric residual circulation impacts thermospheric composition (O/N2). We found that the upwelling associated with the residual circulation significantly decreases O/N2 in winter and the downwelling in summer slightly increases O/N2. Consequently, the residual circulation reduces the summer-to-winter latitudinal gradient of O/N2, which causes the simulated latitudinal gradient of O/N2 to be more consistent with observations. The smaller summer-to-winter latitudinal gradient of O/N2 would decrease the ionosphere winter anomaly in model simulations, which would bring the simulated winter anomaly into better agreement with ionospheric observations. The lower thermospheric residual circulation may be a process that has been largely ignored but is very important to the summer-to-winter latitudinal gradients, as well as annual/semiannual variations in the thermosphere and ionosphere. |
Year of Publication | 2017 |
Journal | Geophysical Research Letters |
Volume | 44 |
Number of Pages | 3971-3979 |
Section | |
Date Published | 05/2017 |
ISBN | |
URL | http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/2017GL073361 |
DOI | 10.1002/2017GL073361 |