Energetics of the Thermosphere in Polar Regions Observed by SABER

Abstract:

The Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry (SABER) instrument on NASA’s TIMED satellite has been measuring the vertical distribution of infrared radiation emitted by various atmospheric gases for nearly 14 years, providing important information about chemical species, including atomic oxygen, hydrogen, ozone and hydroxyl; temperature; and the radiation budget in the upper atmosphere. From these measurements, the infrared power and energy radiated by nitric oxide (NO) at 5.3 µm and carbon dioxide (CO₂) at 15 µm have been computed. These infrared emissions have been shown to be a mechanism for the dissipation of the atmospheric heating that results from geoeffective solar storm energy, serving as a natural thermostat to cool the atmosphere to pre-storm conditions. We present the response in the polar region to several storm events that have occurred during the SABER mission, including the location of maximum response and a comparison of the relative NO and CO2 cooling that occurred, since they are each driven by different factors.