Publication Date:
2019-07-12
Description:
Variations of thermospheric neutral atomic hydrogen with latitude during a solstice season near solar minimum were investigated using data acquired with the polar-orbiting AE-D satellite. Hydrogen concentrations at low latitude were found to be comparable to those found from observations with the AE-E satellite, but were slightly higher than concentrations derived from the 1983 mass spectrometer incoherent scatter atmospheric model. Results confirm the general summer-to-winter density increase, large latitudinal gradients in the summer hemisphere, and the winter enhancement of hydrogen observed in AE-C nighttime measurements. The AE-D data, however, show a small polar depression in hydrogen concentration at high winter latitudes, attributed to atmospheric dynamics following auroral heating. The density gradients observed by AE-D in the summer hemisphere were in sharp contrast to the more constant horizontal daytime profiles reported from OGO-6 and previous AE-C measurements, indicating the possibility of local time effects.
Keywords:
GEOPHYSICS
Type:
Journal of Geophysical Research (ISSN 0148-0227); 93; 9945-995
Format:
text
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