High‐ and Middle‐Latitude Neutral Mesospheric Density Response to Geomagnetic Storms

Yi, Wen; Xue, Xianghui; Murphy, D. J.; Hall, Chris M.; Tsutsumi, Masaki; Ning, Baiqi; Li, Guozhu; Younger, J. P.; Chen, Tingdi; Dou, Xiankang

doi:10.1002/2017gl076282

Cited by 31 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…A harmonic fit of annual, semiannual, terannual, and quadrennial components for peak heights shows a maximum in midwinter (i.e., January) of approximately 90 km and minimum in midsummer (i.e., July) at around 88.6 km. The peak height can be used as a proxy for the height of a constant neutral atmospheric density surface (e.g., Clemesha & Batista, ; Lima et al, ; Liu et al, ; Stober et al, , ; Yi, Reid, Xue, Younger, Murphy, et al, ; Yi, Reid, Xue, Younger, Spargo, et al, ; Yi et al, ), and this will be discussed in below.…”

Section: Instruments and Data Setsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The results above show that the densities obtained from the KMMR and MSIS show similar annual variations; however, the KMMR densities exhibit more seasonal and intraseasonal variations than the MSIS model density. To determine whether KMMR‐derived densities are sufficiently reliable to study the climate and dynamics of the MLT region, we also compared KMMR densities with simultaneous observations of the meteor peak height by KMMR, which can be used to infer changes in neutral atmospheric density (e.g., Clemesha & Batista, ; Lima et al, ; Liu et al, ; Stober et al, , ; Yi, Reid, Xue, Younger, Murphy, et al, ; Yi, Reid, Xue, younger, Spargo, et al, ; Yi et al, ).…”

Section: Seasonal Variation Of the Neutral Atmospheric Density And Pementioning

confidence: 99%

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Estimation of Mesospheric Densities at Low Latitudes Using the Kunming Meteor Radar Together With SABER Temperatures

Xue

Younger

et al. 2018

JGR Space Physics

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Neutral mesospheric densities at a low latitude have been derived during April 2011 to December 2014 using data from the Kunming meteor radar in China (25.6°N, 103.8°E). The daily mean density at 90 km was estimated using the ambipolar diffusion coefficients from the meteor radar and temperatures from the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument. The seasonal variations of the meteor radar‐derived density are consistent with the density from the Mass Spectrometer and Incoherent Scatter (MSIS) model, show a dominant annual variation, with a maximum during winter, and a minimum during summer. A simple linear model was used to separate the effects of atmospheric density and the meteor velocity on the meteor radar peak detection height. We find that a 1 km/s difference in the vertical meteor velocity yields a change of approximately 0.42 km in peak height. The strong correlation between the meteor radar density and the velocity‐corrected peak height indicates that the meteor radar density estimates accurately reflect changes in neutral atmospheric density and that meteor peak detection heights, when adjusted for meteoroid velocity, can serve as a convenient tool for measuring density variations around the mesopause. A comparison of the ambipolar diffusion coefficient and peak height observed simultaneously by two co‐located meteor radars indicates that the relative errors of the daily mean ambipolar diffusion coefficient and peak height should be less than 5% and 6%, respectively, and that the absolute error of the peak height is less than 0.2 km.

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Section: Instruments and Data Setsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Seasonal Variation Of the Neutral Atmospheric Density And Pementioning

confidence: 99%

Estimation of Mesospheric Densities at Low Latitudes Using the Kunming Meteor Radar Together With SABER Temperatures

Xue

Younger

et al. 2018

JGR Space Physics

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“…All four radars are conventional Atmospheric Radar Systems (ATRAD) meteor detection radars as described in Holdsworth et al (), which use a pair of crossed dipoles for transmission and five pairs of crossed dipoles for reception. The observational data sets of these radars have been used in earlier studies on tides (Xiong et al, ; Yu et al, ), planetary waves (Gu et al, ), and neutral density (Liu, Liu, et al, ; Yi et al, ). The main characteristics of the four radars are presented in Table .…”

Section: Instruments and Data Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiyear Observations of Gravity Wave Momentum Fluxes in the Midlatitude Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere Region by Meteor Radar

Jia

Xue

et al. 2018

JGR Space Physics

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Multiyear high‐frequency gravity wave (GW) momentum fluxes and variances in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere region are revealed using four meteor radars along 120°E longitude at Northern Hemisphere midlatitudes for the first time, which are located at Mohe (53.5°N, 122.3°E), Beijing (40.3°N, 116.2°E), Mengcheng (33.3°N, 116.5°E), and Wuhan (30.5°N, 114.2°E), respectively. The seasonal and latitudinal variations of GW momentum fluxes in the midlatitude are discussed. The directions of the monthly mean zonal momentum fluxes are mostly against the background mean zonal winds, which agree well with the selective filtering mechanism. The seasonal variations of meridional momentum fluxes have similar trends over all four stations. The latitudinal variations in the seasonal variation of GW momentum fluxes are mainly due to the latitudinal variations of background winds and GW sources. The unexpected eastward momentum fluxes in winter over Beijing are likely caused by the secondary GWs propagating eastward from the source region over the Tibetan Plateau (25°–40°N, 70–100°E). The GW variances show a V‐shaped structure indicating annual and semiannual variations over four stations in zonal component. A quasi‐4‐month oscillation was observed over Mohe, Mengcheng, and Wuhan in meridional component. The background winds play decisive roles in these GW variance structures.

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“…As the meteor trail diffusion at a particular altitude is log-normally distributed, the solid (for yNLC) and dashed (for nNLC) lines here are the geometric mean (x = exp[logX]) profiles and the shaded regions represent their 99% confidence intervals (e.g., Ballinger et al, 2008). As there are reports that neutral density and thus MTD are influenced by geomagnetic activity (e.g., Yi et al, 2018), we have considered only those meteors that had occurred during relatively quiet geomagnetic conditions (AE index less than 400 nT).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Laskar¹

2019

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The Andenes specular meteor radar shows meteor-trail diffusion rates increasing on average by ∼ 20% at times and locations where a lidar observes noctilucent clouds (NLCs). This high-latitude effect has been attributed to the presence of charged NLC but this study shows that such behaviors result predominantly from thermal tides. To make this claim, the current study evaluates data from three stations, at high-, mid-, and low-latitudes, for the years 2012 to 2016, comparing diffusion to show that thermal tides correlate strongly with the presence of NLCs. This data also shows that the connection between meteortrail diffusion and thermal tide occurs at all altitudes in the mesosphere, while the NLC influence exists only at high-latitudes and at around peak of NLC layer. This paper discusses a number of possible explanations for changes in the regions with NLCs and leans towards the hypothesis that relative abundance of background electron density plays the leading role. A more accurate model of the meteor trail diffusion around NLC particles would help researchers determine mesospheric temperature and neutral density profiles from meteor radars. Copyright statement. 1 Introduction The motion and diffusion of meteor trails depends sensitively upon the properties of the neutral atmosphere where they ablate. Measuring meteor properties with radars enables researchers and weather modelers to estimate the state of the lower thermosphere and upper mesosphere. Meteor radars most often observe underdense meteors in which the radar frequency exceeds the plasma frequency set by the peak meteor plasma density. Typically they have lifetimes that varies from 0.01-0.3 s at altitudes below 110 km. Studies of the meteor trail decay-time and effort to derive ambient temperatures from them have a long history (e.g., Greenhow and Neufeld, 1955; Murray, 1959), but even today there exist several subtle difficulties. Theoretically the meteor trail diffusion (hereafter we refer it as MTD or D a should increase exponentially with altitude.

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High‐ and Middle‐Latitude Neutral Mesospheric Density Response to Geomagnetic Storms

Cited by 31 publications

References 30 publications

Estimation of Mesospheric Densities at Low Latitudes Using the Kunming Meteor Radar Together With SABER Temperatures

Estimation of Mesospheric Densities at Low Latitudes Using the Kunming Meteor Radar Together With SABER Temperatures

Multiyear Observations of Gravity Wave Momentum Fluxes in the Midlatitude Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere Region by Meteor Radar

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