Electron-driven variability of the upper-atmospheric nitric oxide column density over the Syowa station in Antarctica

Verronen, Pekka T.; Mizuno, Akira; Miyoshi, Yoshizumi; Kumar, Sandeep; Nakajima, Taku; Oyama, Shin-Ichiro; Nagahama, Tomoo; Nozawa, Satonori; Szeląg, Monika E.; Häkkilä, Tuomas; Kalakoski, Niilo; Kero, Antti; Turunen, Esa; Kasahara, Satoshi; Yokota, Shoichiro; Keika, Kunihiro; Hori, Tomoaki; Mitani, Takefumi; Takashima, Takeshi; Shinohara, Iku

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-43-561-2025

Articles | Volume 43, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-43-561-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-43-561-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 43, issue 2

Regular paper

|

01 Oct 2025

Regular paper |

| 01 Oct 2025

Electron-driven variability of the upper-atmospheric nitric oxide column density over the Syowa station in Antarctica

Pekka T. Verronen, Akira Mizuno, Yoshizumi Miyoshi, Sandeep Kumar, Taku Nakajima, Shin-Ichiro Oyama, Tomoo Nagahama, Satonori Nozawa, Monika E. Szeląg, Tuomas Häkkilä, Niilo Kalakoski, Antti Kero, Esa Turunen, Satoshi Kasahara, Shoichiro Yokota, Kunihiro Keika, Tomoaki Hori, Takefumi Mitani, Takeshi Takashima, and Iku Shinohara

Data sets

Partial column of Nitric Monoxide observed by millimeter-wave spectroradiometer (Version 1.00) A. Mizuno and T. Nagahama https://ads.nipr.ac.jp/data/meta/A20250402-001

The Level-2 orbit data of Exploration of energization and Radiation in Geospace (ERG) Arase satellite Y. Miyoshi et al. https://doi.org/10.34515/DATA.ERG-12000

WACCM simulation data from the manuscript Electron-Driven Variability of the Upper Atmospheric Nitric Oxide Column Density Over the Syowa Station in Antarctica by Verronen et al. (Version 1.0) P. T. Verronen https://doi.org/10.57707/FMI-B2SHARE.2060526DEE334B819746263EEE858F4E

Short summary

We use NO column density data from the Syowa station in Antarctica from 2012–2017. We compare these ground-based radiometer observations with results from a global atmosphere model to understand the year-to-year and day-to-day variability, shortcomings of current electron forcing, and how geomagnetic storms are driving the variability of NO. Our results demonstrate an underestimation in the magnitude of day-to-day variability in simulations, which calls for improved electron forcing in models.