Annual and semiannual variations of thermospheric density: EOF analysis of CHAMP and GRACE data

Abstract

In this paper, observations from CHAMP and GRACE during 2002–2010 are used to study the seasonal variations of thermospheric density by characterizing the dominant modes of thermospheric density variability as empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs). Our results showed that the first three EOFs captured most of the density variability, which can be as large as 98% of total density variability. Subsequently, the obtained mean field, first three EOFs and the corresponding amplitudes of three EOFs are applied to construct a thermospheric density model at 400 km to study seasonal variations of thermospheric density under geomagnetically quiet conditions. Thermospheric density shows strong latitudinal dependence in seasonal variation, although it usually has maxima near the equinoxes and minimum in the local winter at middle and high latitudes. Semiannual variations imbedded in the annual variations are seen at all latitudes; annual variations however become dominant in the southern hemisphere. Specifically, the observations show that the annual amplitude can reach as large as 40–50% of the annual mean at high latitudes in the southern hemisphere and it decreases gradually from the southern to northern hemisphere. The semiannual component to the annual mean is about 15–20% without significant latitudinal dependence. Additionally, the relative amplitudes of annual and semiannual variations in the MSISE00 density agree fairly well with the observations, albeit the MSISE00 gives an opposite solar activity dependence for the annual and semiannual variations compared with the positive F107 dependence seen in the observations.