Identification

Title

Mesospheric nitric oxide transport in WACCM

Abstract

Energetic particle precipitation (EPP) causes ionization of the main constituents of the Earth's atmosphere which leads to the production of nitric oxide (NO) throughout the polar mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). Due to the long lifetime of NO during winter, it can also be transported deeper into the atmosphere by the mesospheric residual circulation (the indirect EEP effect). This study investigates the mesospheric indirect NO response to EEP using Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) version 6. In comparison to observations from the instrument Solar Occultation For Ice Experiment (SOFIE) on the AIM (Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere) satellite, a wintertime underestimation is found in the modeled mesospheric NO amount. WACCM's temperature profile is found to be vertically shifted compared to observations by SOFIE and by The Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry instrument on the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics Dynamics satellite (SABER). The discrepancies in NO are therefore attributed to the model's ability to simulate the dynamics responsible for the indirect EEP effect. The drivers of this transport are investigated by sensitivity runs of WACCM's gravity wave forcing. Changing the amplitude of the non-orographic gravity waves and the Prandtl number improves the modeled vertical distribution of NO and temperature in the MLT region.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d79c7223

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2022-03-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact