On the relative roles of dynamics and chemistry governing the abundance and diurnal variation of low-latitude thermospheric nitric oxide

Siskind, David E.; Jones Jr., McArthur; Drob, Douglas P.; McCormack, John P.; Hervig, Mark E.; Marsh, Daniel R.; Mlynczak, Martin G.; Bailey, Scott M.; Maute, Astrid; Mitchell, Nicholas J.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-37-37-2019

Articles | Volume 37, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-37-37-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-37-37-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 37, issue 1

Regular paper

|

25 Jan 2019

Regular paper |

| 25 Jan 2019

On the relative roles of dynamics and chemistry governing the abundance and diurnal variation of low-latitude thermospheric nitric oxide

David E. Siskind, McArthur Jones Jr., Douglas P. Drob, John P. McCormack, Mark E. Hervig, Daniel R. Marsh, Martin G. Mlynczak, Scott M. Bailey, Astrid Maute, and Nicholas J. Mitchell

Data sets

SOFIE NO data GATS Inc. http://saber.gats-inc.com/data.php

Model code and software

The GLobal airglOW Model, GitHub S. C. Solomon https://github.com/NCAR/GLOW

Short summary

We use data from two NASA satellites and a general circulation model of the upper atmosphere to elucidate the key factors governing the abundance and diurnal variation of nitric oxide (NO) at near-solar minimum conditions and low latitudes. This has been difficult to do previously, because NO data are typically taken from satellites in sun-synchronous orbits, meaning that they only acquire data in fixed local times. We overcome this limitation through model simulations of the NO diurnal cycle.