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Ann. Geophys., 19, 37-46, 2001
www.ann-geophys.net/19/37/2001/
© European Geosciences Union 2001
Evidence of meso-scale structure in the high-latitude thermosphere
A. L. Aruliah and E. Griffin
Atmospheric Physics Laboratory, University College London, 67–73, Riding House Street, London W1P 7PP, England
Correspondence to: A. L. Aruliah, (anasuya@apg.ph.ucl.ac.uk)
Abstract. There is a widely held
assumption that the thermospheric neutral gas is slow to respond to
magnetospheric forcing owing to its large inertia and therefore, may be treated
as a steady state background medium for the more dynamic ionosphere. This is
shown to be over simplistic. The data presented here compare direct measurements
of the thermospheric neutral winds made in Northern Scandinavia by Fabry-Perot
Interferometers (FPIs) with direct measurements of the ionosphere made by the
EISCAT radar and with model simulations. These comparisons will show that the
neutral atmosphere is capable of responding to ionospheric changes on mesoscale
levels, i.e., spatial and temporal scale sizes of less than a few hundred
kilometres and tens of minutes, respectively.
Key words. Atmospheric composition and structure
(air-glow and aurora; instruments and techniques) – Ionosphere
(ionosphere-atmosphere interactions)
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