A climatology of middle and upper atmosphere radar observations of thermospheric winds

Abstract

Shigaraki middle and upper atmosphere (MU) radar observations of horizontal thermospheric winds in the magnetic meridian plane over the period September 1986 to September 1996 are reported as climatological averages in the form of time‐of‐day variations for several combinations of seasonal and solar activity conditions and are compared with winds predicted by the horizontal wind model (HWM) and with winds measured at Saint Santin and Millstone Hill. The dominant feature of the MU wind behavior is its mean diurnal variation of northward flow by day and southward flow by night, with the nighttime wind smoothly approaching and receding from a midnight maximum, while the daytime wind tends to show two peaks, a strong one in the early daylight hours and a weak one in the afternoon‐evening. HWM shows the same unimodal nighttime and bimodal daytime behavior, but the HWM pattern is shifted about 2 hours later in time. The amplitude of the diurnal harmonic decreases from 78 m/s at solar minimum to 45 m/s at solar maximum, while HWM shows a corresponding increase from 53 to 62 m/s. The diurnal amplitude is remarkably stable with season but is superposed on a steady wind of 41 m/s southward in summer, 15 m/s northward in winter, and midway between these limits at the equinoxes. HWM shows a symmetric pattern of 30 m/s southward in summer and 30 m/s northward in winter. Ion drag appears to be the main regulator of wind speed, and the seasonal wind patterns have a profound effect on the seasonal behavior of the ionosphere.