Pulsating auroras (PsAs) are low-intensity diffuse aurora, which switch on and off with a quasiperiodic oscillation period from a few seconds to ∼10 s. They are predominantly observed after magnetic midnight, during the recovery phase of substorms and at the equatorward boundary of the auroral oval. PsAs are caused by precipitating energetic electrons, which span a wide range of energies between tens and hundreds of keV. Such energetic PsA electrons will deposit their energy at mesospheric altitudes and induce atmospheric chemical changes. To examine the effects of energetic PsA electrons on the atmosphere, we first collect electron flux and energy measurements from low-latitude spacecraft to construct a typical energy spectrum of precipitating electrons during PsA. Among the 840 PsA events identified using ground-based auroral all-sky camera (ASC) network over the Fennoscandian region, 253 events were observed by DMSP, POES, and FAST spacecraft over the common field of view of five ASCs. The combined measurements from these spacecraft enable us to obtain an energy spectrum consisting of nonrelativistic and relativistic (30 eV to 1,000 keV) electrons during PsA. The median spectrum was found to be in good agreement with earlier estimates of the PsA spectra. We then use the Sodankylä Ion-neutral Chemistry (SIC) model to assess the chemical effect of PsA electrons. The observed extreme and median spectra of PsA produce a significant depletion in the mesospheric odd oxygen concentration up to 78%.

Abstract. Measurements of equatorial thermospheric winds, temperatures, and 630 nm relative intensities were obtained using an imaging Fabry–Perot interferometer (FPI), which was recently deployed at Bahir Dar University in Ethiopia (11.6° N, 37.4° E, 3.7° N magnetic). The results obtained in this study cover 6 months (53 nights of useable data) between November 2015 and April 2016. The monthly-averaged values, which include local winter and equinox seasons, show the magnitude of the maximum monthly-averaged zonal wind is typically within the range of 70 to 90 ms−1 and is eastward between 19:00 and 21:00 LT. Compared to prior studies of the equatorial thermospheric wind for this local time period, the magnitude is considerably weaker as compared to the maximum zonal wind speed observed in the Peruvian sector but comparable to Brazilian FPI results. During the early evening, the meridional wind speeds are 30 to 50 ms−1 poleward during the winter months and 10 to 25 ms−1 equatorward in the equinox months. The direction of the poleward wind during the winter months is believed to be mainly caused by the existence of the interhemispheric wind flow from the summer to winter hemispheres. An equatorial wind surge is observed later in the evening and is shifted to later local times during the winter months and to earlier local times during the equinox months. Significant night-to-night variations are also observed in the maximum speed of both zonal and meridional winds. The temperature observations show the midnight temperature maximum (MTM) to be generally present between 00:30 and 02:00 LT. The amplitude of the MTM was  ∼  110 K in January 2016 with values smaller than this in the other months. The local time difference between the appearance of the MTM and a pre-midnight equatorial wind was generally 60 to 180 min. A meridional wind reversal was also observed after the appearance of the MTM (after 02:00 LT). Climatological models, HWM14 and MSIS-00, were compared to the observations and the HWM14 model generally predicted the zonal wind observations well with the exception of higher model values by 25 ms−1 in the winter months. The HWM14 model meridional wind showed generally good agreement with the observations. Finally, the MSIS-00 model overestimated the temperature by 50 to 75 K during the early evening hours of local winter months. Otherwise, the agreement was generally good, although, in line with prior studies, the model failed to reproduce the MTM peak for any of the 6 months compared with the FPI data.