Meridional winds in the thermosphere derived from measurement of F2 layer height

Abstract

Dynamics of the neutral atmosphere play an important role in the altitude distribution and peak electron density of the ionospheric F region. In this paper we describe a method for deriving neutral meridional winds from ground‐based measurements of the height of the F2 layer (hmax). This method involves the use of an ionospheric model to develop the relationship between meridional neutral wind and hmax at specified location, time, and solar conditions. The meridional wind is derived from a comparison of the modeled layer height with the measured height. Good agreement is found when the results are compared with meridional winds from Fabry‐Perot interferometer and incoherent‐scatter radar measurements. This method can produce results comparable with other methods, and has the advantage that it can use as input F2 layer heights from true‐height analysis of ionosonde measurements, which are already being made systematically and on a global scale.