Geographical and Seasonal Variability of Mesospheric Bores Observed from the International Space Station

Hozumi, Yuta; Saito, Akinori; Sakanoi, Takeshi; Yamazaki, Atsushi; Hosokawa, K.; Nakamura, Takuji

doi:10.1029/2019ja026635

Cited by 15 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…The monochromatic wavelength of 45 km is consistent with mesospheric bores. Further, the mesospheric bore occurrence rate is largest around equinoxes (Su et al, 2018) and during evening hours (Hozumi et al, 2019).…”

Section: Agu Advancesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Citizen scientists discover a new auroral form: Dunes provide insight into the upper atmosphere

Palmroth

Grandin

Helin³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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<p>Auroral forms are like fingerprints linking optical features to physical phenomena in the near-Earth space. While discovering new forms is rare, recently scientists reported of citizens' observations of STEVE, a pinkish optical manifestation of subauroral ionospheric drifts that were not thought to be visible to the naked eye. Here, we present a new auroral form named "the dunes". On Oct 7, 2018, citizen observers took multiple digital photographs of the same dunes simultaneously from different locations in Finland and Sweden. We develop a triangulation method to analyse the photographs, and conclude that the dunes are a monochromatic wave field with a wavelength of about 45 km within a thin layer at 100 km altitude. Supporting data suggest that the dunes manifest atmospheric waves, possibly mesospheric bores, which are rarely detected, and have not previously been observed via diffuse aurora, nor at auroral latitudes and altitudes. The dunes present a new opportunity to investigate the coupling of the lower/middle atmosphere to the thermosphere and ionosphere. We conclude that the the dunes may provide new insights into the structure of the mesopause as a response to driving by ionospheric energy deposition via Joule heating and electron precipitation.&#160;Further, our paper adds to the growing body of work that illustrates the value of citizen scientist images in carrying out quantitative analysis of optical phenomena, especially at small scales at subauroral latitudes. The dune project presents means to create general interest towards physics, emphasising that citizens can take part in scientific work by helping to uncover new phenomena.</p>

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Section: Agu Advancesmentioning

confidence: 97%

Citizen scientists discover a new auroral form: Dunes provide insight into the upper atmosphere

Palmroth

Grandin

Helin³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The monochromatic wavelength of 45 km is consistent with mesospheric bores. Further, the mesospheric bore occurrence rate is largest around equinoxes (Su et al, ) and during evening hours (Hozumi et al, ).…”

Section: Interpretation and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Citizen Scientists Discover a New Auroral Form: Dunes Provide Insight Into the Upper Atmosphere

Palmroth

Grandin

Helin³

et al. 2020

AGU Advances

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Auroral forms are like fingerprints linking optical features to physical phenomena in the near-Earth space. While discovering new forms is rare, recently, scientists reported of citizens' observations of STEVE, a pinkish optical manifestation of subauroral ionospheric drifts that were not thought to be visible to the naked eye. Here, we present a new auroral form named "the dunes". On 7 October 2018, citizen observers took multiple digital photographs of the same dunes simultaneously from different locations in Finland and Sweden. We develop a triangulation method to analyze the photographs and conclude that the dunes are a monochromatic wave field with a wavelength of about 45 km within a thin layer at 100 km altitude. Supporting data suggest that the dunes manifest atmospheric waves, possibly mesospheric bores, which are rarely detected, and have not previously been observed via diffuse aurora nor at auroral latitudes and altitudes. The dunes present a new opportunity to investigate the coupling of the lower/middle atmosphere to the thermosphere and ionosphere. Our paper adds to the growing body of work that illustrates the value of citizen scientist images in carrying out quantitative analysis of optical phenomena, especially at small scales at subauroral latitudes. Further, the dune project presents means to create general interest toward physics, emphasizing that citizens can take part in scientific work by helping to uncover new phenomena. Plain Language SummaryAbove Earth's atmosphere at about 80-120 km altitude, lies a region that is often dubbed as the "ignorosphere," one of the least explored regions at our planet. We present a new auroral form spotted by citizen scientists and show how it can be used to investigate the ignorosphere. We name the new form as "the dunes" and develop a method to analyze the citizen scientist pictures using the stars on the skies as reference points. The new method and other supporting data indicate that the dunes are a monochromatic wave field with a wavelength of about 45 km within a thin layer at 100 km altitude, right in the ignorosphere, where atmosphere meets the electromagnetic forcing from space. The analysis suggests that the dunes manifest atmospheric waves, possibly a rare phenomenon called mesospheric bores, which are large wave fields propagating in the ignorosphere. They have not previously been observed via aurora, nor at auroral latitudes and altitudes. The dunes present a new opportunity to investigate the ignorosphere and its driving from above. Further, the dune project presents means to create general interest toward physics, emphasizing that citizens can take part in scientific work by helping to uncover new phenomena. Key Points: • Citizen scientists discover a new auroral form, named the dunes, presenting a large-scale monochromatic wave field • We develop a triangulation method using citizen scientist photographs as science data • We suggest that the dunes manifest mesospheric bores, which have not previously been observed in the diffuse aurora Suppo...

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“…The VISI OH* channel was contaminated with background city lights and reflected moonlight from clouds, similar to DNB. Since these signals are largely absorbed by O 2 in the lower atmosphere, only the O 2 emission at~95 km has been used to study global AGWs including mesospheric bores so far [53][54][55][56][57]. VISI data have a horizontal resolution of 14-16 km and a 600 km swath width for the O 2 emission.…”

Section: Instrumentationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Preliminary Dual-Satellite Observations of Atmospheric Gravity Waves in Airglow

Yue

Perwitasari

et al. 2019

Atmosphere

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Atmospheric gravity waves (AGWs) are among the important energy and momentum transfer mechanisms from the troposphere to the middle and upper atmosphere. Despite their understood importance in governing the structure and dynamics of these regions, mesospheric AGWs remain poorly measured globally, and largely unconstrained in numerical models. Since late 2011, the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) Visible/Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) day–night band (DNB) has observed global AGWs near the mesopause by virtue of its sensitivity to weak emissions of the OH* Meinel bands. The wave features, detectable at 0.75 km spatial resolution across its 3000 km imagery swath, are often confused by the upwelling emission of city lights and clouds reflecting downwelling nightglow. The Ionosphere, Mesosphere, upper Atmosphere and Plasmasphere (IMAP)/ Visible and near-Infrared Spectral Imager (VISI) O2 band, an independent measure of the AGW structures in nightglow based on the International Space Station (ISS) during 2012–2015, contains much less noise from the lower atmosphere. However, VISI offers much coarser resolution of 14–16 km and a narrower swath width of 600 km. Here, we present preliminary results of comparisons between VIIRS/DNB and VISI observations of AGWs, focusing on several concentric AGW events excited by the thunderstorms over Eastern Asia in August 2013. The comparisons point toward suggested improvements for future spaceborne airglow sensor designs targeting AGWs.

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Geographical and Seasonal Variability of Mesospheric Bores Observed from the International Space Station

Cited by 15 publications

References 44 publications

Citizen scientists discover a new auroral form: Dunes provide insight into the upper atmosphere

Citizen scientists discover a new auroral form: Dunes provide insight into the upper atmosphere

Citizen Scientists Discover a New Auroral Form: Dunes Provide Insight Into the Upper Atmosphere

Preliminary Dual-Satellite Observations of Atmospheric Gravity Waves in Airglow

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