Doppler temperatures from O(<sup>1</sup>D) airglow in the daytime thermosphere as observed by the Wind Imaging Interferometer (WINDII) on the UARS satellite

Abstract

Abstract. From 1992 to 1997, the WINDII interferometer on board the UARS satellite acquired a large set of thermospheric data from the O( 1 D) and O( 1 S) airglows. We report here for the first time on daytime O( 1 D) Doppler temperatures obtained with version 5.11 of the WINDII data processing software. Using a statistical analysis of the temperatures independently measured by the two WINDII fields of view, we estimate that the temperature variations larger than 40 K can be considered as geophysical. Comparisons of WINDII temperatures measured during magnetically quiet days with temperatures obtained by the MSIS-90 and DTM-94 thermospheric models show a 100 K bias. We demonstrate, however, that the modeled temperature variations represent very well the mean temperature variation observed by WINDII over 4 years. We also show that the observed latitudinal/local time variation is in very good agreement with the two empirical models. Finally, the temperature variations during a magnetically disturbed day are found to be qualitatively well represented in form by the models, but largely underestimated. The presence of non-thermal atoms and instrument related issues are discussed as possible explanations for the 100 K bias between the WINDII Doppler temperatures and the empirical models.

An Overview of Ionosphere—Thermosphere Models Available for Space Weather Purposes

“…Physical approaches consist in feeding the models with observations. These observations can for example be the UV airglow (Nicholas et al 2000), the thermospheric temperature (Lathuillère et al 2002), or ionospheric parameters such as the Total Electron Content (TEC) (Lilensten and Blelly 2002).…”

Simulations of imaging Fabry–Perot interferometers for measuring upper-atmospheric temperatures and winds

“…An improved method to derive vertical profiles of temperature and wind was developed in which temperature and wind parameters were discretized in the spatial domain. A linearly constrained least squares algorithm was then applied with results presented in [15,18,19].…”

WINDII thermosphere temperature perturbation for magnetically active situations

“…Between 1992 and 1997, the WINDII interferometer on board the UARS satellite acquired a large set of thermosphere data from the O( 1 S) and O( 1 D) airglow. Doppler temperature profiles from 180 to 260 km altitude were retrieved from the O( 1 D) data and compared with modeled temperatures [ Lathuillère et al , 2002]. Restricting their analysis to 33 quiet magnetic days, the authors have shown that temperatures predicted by the two semiempirical models DTM94 [ Berger et al , 1998] and MSIS‐90 [ Hedin , 1991] were in excellent agreement with the observed latitudinal/local time and solar activity variations of the WINDII temperatures.…”