Effects of solar proton events on dayglow observed by the TIMED/SABER satellite

Abstract

The effect of solar proton events on the daytime O2 and OH airglows and ozone and atomic oxygen concentrations in the mesosphere is studied using data from the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER). Five events occurred in September 2005, December 2006, March 2012, May 2013, and June 2015 that satisfy two criteria: the maximum proton fluxes are larger than 1000 pfu, and daytime data in the high latitude region are available from SABER. The event in December 2006 is studied in detail, and the effects of all five events are compared in brief. The results indicate that all four parameters in the mesosphere decrease during the events. During the event in 2006, the maximum depletions of O2 and OH dayglow emission rates and ozone and atomic oxygen volume mixing ratios at 70 km are respectively 31.6%, 37.0%, 42.4%, and 38.9%. The effect of the solar proton event changes with latitude, longitude, and altitude. The depletions due to the stronger events are larger on average than those due to the weaker events. The depletions of both dayglow emission rates are weaker than those of ozone and atomic oxygen. The responses of O2 and OH nightglow emissions around their peak altitudes to the SPEs are not as strong and regular as those for dayglow in the mesosphere.

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

“…Many studies have reported that geomagnetic activity can significantly affect global mesospheric composition through energetic particle precipitation into the middle atmosphere. This leads to a large increase in odd nitrogen and odd hydrogen, and a strong depletion of ozone in the global mesosphere (e.g., Andersson, Verronen, Rodger, Clilverd, & Wang, ; Andersson, Verronen, Rodger, Clilverd, & Seppälä, ; Daae et al, ; Gao et al, ; Jackman et al, ; Solomon et al, , and references therein). A few studies have found evidence for mesospheric temperature enhancements in polar and higher midlatitudes regions during geomagnetic storms (e.g., Hocke, ; von Savigny et al, ; Yuan et al, ).…”

Sensitivity of Middle Atmospheric Ozone to Solar Proton Events: A Comparison Between a Climate Model and Satellites

“…In addition, we use proton flux measurements from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites (GOES), Rodriguez et al (2010) and ozone data from WACCM-D. These satellites for ozone data were chosen as they have previously been used to investigate SPE impact on middle atmospheric ozone, see for example, for MIPAS (Funke et al, 2011;López-Puertas et al, 2005), OSIRIS (Degenstein et al, 2005), MLS (Andersson et al, 2016;Jia et al, 2020;Verronen et al, 2006) and SABER (Gao et al, 2017;Päivärinta et al, 2013). The GOES satellites carry an energetic particle sensor and have provided continuous solar proton flux measurements since 1974 (Rodriguez et al, 2010).…”