Relative Contributions of Heating and Momentum Forcing to High-Latitude Lower Thermospheric Winds

Abstract:

At high latitudes the thermospheric dynamics are gov­erned by various heat and momentum sources. Recently several modeling studies have been attempt­ed to understand the physical process that control the high-latitude lower thermospheric dynamics. Kwak and Richmond [2007] and Kwak et al. [2007] studied the momentum forcing bal­ance that are mainly responsible for maintaining the high-latitude lower thermospheric wind system by using the National Center for Atmospheric Research Thermo­sphere Ionosphere Electrodynamics General Circulation Model (NCAR TIE-GCM). Kwak and Richmond [2014] analyzed the divergence and vorticity of the high-latitude neutral wind field in the lower thermosphere during the south­ern summertime. In this study, we extend previous works by Kwak and Rich­mond [2007, 2014] and Kwak et al. [2007], which helped to better understand the physical processes maintaining thermospheric dynamics at high latitudes, and here perform a “term analysis of the potential vorticity equation” for the high-latitude neu­tral wind field in the lower thermosphere, on the basis of numerical simulations using the NCAR TIE-GCM. These analyses can provide insight into the relative strength of the heating and the momentum forcing responsible for driving rotational winds at the high-latitude lower thermosphere. The heating is the net heat including the heat transfer by downward molecular and eddy heat conduction, the absorption of solar ultraviolet (UV) and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) ra­diation, auroral heating by particles, Joule dissipation of ionospheric currents, release of chemical energy by the atomic oxygen recombination, and radiative CO₂, NO and O infrared emissions. The momentum forcing is associated with the viscous force and the frictional drag force from convecting ions.