Solar tides in the equatorial upper thermosphere: A comparison between AE-E data and the TIGCM for solstice, solar minimum conditions

Journal Article · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1991 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/90JA02149· OSTI ID:5190310

Burrage, M D; Storz, M F; Abreu, V J ^[1]; Fesen, C G ^[2]; Roble, R G ^[3]

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1. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor (USA)
2. Dartmouth College, Hanover,NH (USA)
3. National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (USA)

Equatorial thermospheric tidal temperatures and densities inferred from Atmosphere Explorer E (AE-E) mass spectrometer data are compared with theoretical predictions from the National Center for Atmospheric Research Thermosphere/Ionisphere General Circulation Model (TIGCM) for solar minimum, solstice conditions. The thermospheric diurnal and semidiurnal tides are excited in situ by solar heating and by ion-neutral momentum coupling. Semidiurnal tides are also generated by upward propagating waves excited by heating in the lower atmosphere. The model calculations include all of these sources. The TIGCM reproduces the gross tidal features observed by the satellite, including the midnight temperature anomaly, and the diurnal phases are in good agreement for the densities of atomic oxygen and molecular nitrogen. However, for the neutral temperature, the predicted phases are 1-2 hours earlier than observed. In addition, the diurnal temperature and density amplitudes predicted by the model are considerably weaker than indicated by the AE-E measurements. The semidiurnal variations found in the observations agree well with the model for December solstice but not for June. The present results indicate that upward propagating tides from the lower atmosphere are responsible for at least half of the amplitude of the semidiurnal tide in the upper thermosphere.

• OSTI ID: 5190310
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Vol. 96:A1; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
THERMOSPHERE
DENSITY
TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DAILY VARIATIONS
EQUATOR
EXPANSION
GAS FLOW
GENERAL CIRCULATION MODELS
GRAVITATIONAL INTERACTIONS
ION DENSITY
ION-ATOM COLLISIONS
SOLAR HEATING
SOLAR RADIATION
TIDE
TIME DEPENDENCE
ULTRAVIOLET RADIATION
WAVE PROPAGATION
ATOM COLLISIONS
BASIC INTERACTIONS
COLLISIONS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
EVALUATION
FLUID FLOW
HEATING
INTERACTIONS
ION COLLISIONS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
RADIATIONS
STELLAR RADIATION
VARIATIONS
640200* - Atmospheric Physics