Influence of Geomagnetic and IMF conditions on High Latitude Upper Atmospheric winds and Temperatures

Abstract:

We analyzed the climatological behavior of upper atmospheric winds (horizontal and vertical) and temperatures above Alaska by combining line-of-sight Doppler shifts of 630 nm optical emissions recorded during the 2011 and 2012 winters using a ground based all-sky wavelength scanning Doppler Fabry-Perot interferometer (SDI) located at Poker Flat (65.12N, 147.47W). The wide field of view covered a large geographic region above Alaska. This field was divided in software into multiple zones (115 used here), allowing independent spectra to be sampled from many directions simultaneously. As a result, it is capable of recording the wind field’s spatial variations over a wide geographic region with high spatial resolution, and to resolve these variations over time. Although such climatological studies have been performed previously using satellites, models, and narrow field Fabry-Perot interferometers, there are no published climatological studies of thermospheric winds and temperatures using either SDI data or any other technique with comparable geographic coverage and resolution. Wind summary dial plots were produced to depict the climatology of the horizontal winds and temperatures for different geomagnetic conditions and orientation of interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). Results show that horizontal winds and temperatures had a strong dependence on geospace activity and orientation of IMF. The latitudinal shears in horizontal winds were stronger when geomagnetic conditions were active compared to the latitudinal shears for quiet conditions. Also, shears appeared earlier over Poker Flat when geomagnetic conditions were active. The latitudinal shears showed more dependence on IMF when geomagnetic conditions were active than they did during quieter conditions. F-region temperatures were higher under active geomagnetic conditions than during quiet conditions. They were also observed to be higher in pre-magnetic midnight sector (duskside) than they were post-magnetic midnight (dawnside). The dependence of vertical winds on the geomagnetic activity and IMF is still under investigation.