Energy transport in the thermosphere during the solar storms of April 2002

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Read Full Article (file size: 1733289 bytes) Cited by JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 110, A12S25, doi:10.1029/2005JA011141, 2005 Energy transport in the thermosphere during the solar storms of April 2002 Martin G. Mlynczak Science Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, USA F. Javier Martin-Torres AS & M Inc., Hampton, Virginia, USA Geoff Crowley Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas, USA David P. Kratz Science Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, USA Bernd Funke Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Granada, Spain Gang Lu National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA Manuel Lopez-Puertas Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, Granada, Spain James M. Russell III Hampton University, Hampton, Virginia, USA Janet Kozyra University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA Chris Mertens Science Directorate, NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, Virginia, USA Ramesh Sharma Air Force Research Laboratory, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, USA Larry Gordley G & A Technical Software, Newport News, Virginia, USA Richard Picard Air Force Research Laboratory, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, USA Jeremy Winick Air Force Research Laboratory, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, USA Larry Paxton Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, USA Abstract The dramatic solar storm events of April 2002 deposited a large amount of energy into the Earth's upper atmosphere, substantially altering the thermal structure, the chemical composition, the dynamics, and the radiative environment. We examine the flow of energy within the thermosphere during this storm period from the perspective of infrared radiation transport and heat conduction. Observations from the SABER instrument on the TIMED satellite are coupled with computations based on the ASPEN thermospheric general circulation model to assess the energy flow. The dominant radiative response is associated with dramatically enhanced infrared emission from nitric oxide at 5.3 μm from which a total of ∼7.7 × 10²³ ergs of energy are radiated during the storm. Energy loss rates due to NO emission exceed 2200 Kelvin per day. In contrast, energy loss from carbon dioxide emission at 15 μm is only ∼2.3% that of nitric oxide. Atomic oxygen emission at 63 μm is essentially constant during the storm. Energy loss from molecular heat conduction may be as large as 3.8% of the NO emission. These results confirm the “natural thermostat” effect of nitric oxide emission as the primary mechanism by which storm energy is lost from the thermosphere below 210 km. Received 17 March 2005; accepted 13 September 2005; published 15 December 2005. Keywords: thermosphere; energy balance; thermostat effect; nitric oxide; solar variability; atmospheric radiation. Index Terms: 0310 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Airglow and aurora; 0355 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Thermosphere: composition and chemistry; 0358 Atmospheric Composition and Structure: Thermosphere: energy deposition (3369); 3359 Atmospheric Processes: Radiative processes; 7513 Solar Physics, Astrophysics, and Astronomy: Coronal mass ejections (2101). Read Full Article (file size: 1733289 bytes) Cited by Citation: Mlynczak, M. G., et al. (2005), Energy transport in the thermosphere during the solar storms of April 2002, J. Geophys. Res., 110, A12S25, doi:10.1029/2005JA011141. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.

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