Identification

Title

Hydrodynamic planetary thermosphere model: 2. Coupling of an electron transport/energy deposition model

Abstract

An electron transport/energy deposition model is expanded to include atomic nitrogen and is coupled with a 1-D hydrodynamic thermosphere model. The coupled model is used to investigate the response of the Earth's thermosphere under extreme solar EUV conditions and is compared with previous studies. It is found that (1) the parameterization of Swartz and Nisbet (1972) underestimates the ambient electron heating by photoelectrons significantly in the upper thermosphere of the Earth under conditions with greater than 3 times the present solar EUV irradiance; (2) the transition of the Earth's thermosphere from a hydrostatic equilibrium regime to a hydrodynamic regime occurs at a smaller solar EUV flux condition when enhanced, more realistic, and self-consistent, ambient electron heating by photoelectrons is accounted for; (3) atomic nitrogen becomes the dominant neutral species in the upper thermosphere (competing against atomic oxygen) under extreme solar EUV conditions, and the electron impact processes of atomic nitrogen are important for both the chemistry and energetics in the corresponding thermosphere/ionosphere; (4) N+ remains a minor ion compared to O+, even when atomic nitrogen dominates the exobase; and (5) adiabatic cooling does not play an important role in electron gas energy budget. These findings highlight the importance of an electron transport/energy deposition model when investigating the thermosphere and ionosphere of terrestrial planets in their early evolutionary stages.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7rx9dck

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

2008-05-31T00:00:00Z

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