Lower Thermospheric Temperature Response to Geomagnetic Activity at High Latitudes

Abstract

AbstractThe magnetosphere‐ionosphere‐thermosphere system is externally driven by the energy input from the solar wind. A part of the solar wind energy deposited in the magnetosphere during geomagnetically active periods dissipates into the thermosphere. Previous studies have reported temperature perturbations in the lower thermosphere during geomagnetic storms. The present study aims to assess the climatological spatial pattern of the lower thermospheric response to geomagnetic activity at high latitudes based on 21 years of temperature measurements by the SABER (Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry) instrument onboard the TIMED (Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics) satellite and their comparison with the recently developed half‐hourly geomagnetic activity index Hp30. The temperature response to geomagnetic activity, evaluated at different seasons and altitudes, is better organized in magnetic coordinates than in geographic coordinates. At 110 km, the temperature increases with Hp30 at all magnetic local times, but with a prominent dusk‐dawn asymmetry in the magnitude. That is, the temperature variation per unit Hp30 is larger in the dusk sector than in the dawn sector. At 106 km, the response in the dawn sector is further reduced or even negative. These results provide observational evidence to support earlier theoretical predictions; according to which, both storm‐induced vertical wind and Joule heating contribute to the temperature increase in the dusk sector, while in the dawn sector, the vertical wind acts to cool the air and thus counteracts Joule heating.