New modes and mechanisms of thermospheric mass density variations from GRACE accelerometers

Abstract

AbstractMonitoring and understanding the upper atmosphere processes is important for orbital decay and space physics. Nowadays, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) accelerometers provide a unique opportunity to study thermospheric density variations with unprecedented details. In this paper, thermospheric mass densities variations from Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) accelerometers are investigated for the period 2003–2016 using the principal component analysis (PCA). The resulting modes are analyzed and parameterized in terms of solar and magnetospheric forcing, local solar time (LST), and annual variations. A better understanding of global thermospheric air density variations is presented, which validates the suitability of our technique and model. The parameterization of the subsolar‐point annual variation shows two maxima around June and only one in December. The LST parameterization shows a new fluctuation controlling a middle latitude four‐wave pattern, with two maxima at 12 h and 21 h LST and two minima at 1 h and 17 h LST. Our parameterizations are suitable to represent small‐scale variations including, e.g., the equatorial mass density anomaly (EMA) and the midnight density maximum (MDM). Finally, the residuals are analyzed in the spectral domain, and additional contributions are found at the frequencies of the radiational tides and at the periods of 83, 93, 152, and 431 days.