Thermospheric winds over Japan: Comparison of ionosonde and radar measurements

Abstract

The magnetic meridional component of the thermospheric neutral wind is derived from the F2 layer height measured from ionograms collected at Kokubunji, Japan and compared with the winds measured by the middle and upper atmosphere radar at Shigaraki, Japan and the winds predicted by the empirical Horizontal Wind Model 1990 (HWM90). Good agreement is found between the ionosonde and the radar winds. This agreement supports the previous finding of the radar study that the winds over Japan are smaller in amplitude than the winds reported elsewhere by a factor of 1.5–2. On the other hand, disagreement is found at some local times between the ionosonde and HWM90 winds. The ionosonde winds in the period from 1986 to 1988 are, on average, poleward in the daytime and equatorward in the nighttime. The daytime‐nighttime difference remains at about 100 m/s summer or winter, but this diurnal pattern is superposed upon a daily average drift of about 10 m/s southward in summer and 10 m/s northward in winter, suggesting a consistent summer‐to‐winter circulation pattern. This limited study validates the ionosonde wind method as applied at Japanese longitudes and opens the way for comprehensive studies of the thermospheric wind over Japan from the long and continuous ionogram libraries from the Japanese ionosonde chain.