Smith‐Johnsen, C, Marsh, DR orcid.org/0000-0001-6699-494X, Smith, AK et al. (2 more authors) (2022) Mesospheric Nitric Oxide Transport in WACCM. Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 127 (3). e2021JA029998. ISSN 2169-9402
Abstract
Energetic particle precipitation (EPP) causes ionization of the main constituents of the Earth's atmosphere which leads to the production of nitric oxide (NO) throughout the polar mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). Due to the long lifetime of NO during winter, it can also be transported deeper into the atmosphere by the mesospheric residual circulation (the indirect EEP effect). This study investigates the mesospheric indirect NO response to EEP using Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) version 6. In comparison to observations from the instrument Solar Occultation For Ice Experiment (SOFIE) on the AIM (Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere) satellite, a wintertime underestimation is found in the modeled mesospheric NO amount. WACCM's temperature profile is found to be vertically shifted compared to observations by SOFIE and by The Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry instrument on the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics Dynamics satellite (SABER). The discrepancies in NO are therefore attributed to the model's ability to simulate the dynamics responsible for the indirect EEP effect. The drivers of this transport are investigated by sensitivity runs of WACCM's gravity wave forcing. Changing the amplitude of the non-orographic gravity waves and the Prandtl number improves the modeled vertical distribution of NO and temperature in the MLT region.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | ©2022, The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Astrophysics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 23 Mar 2022 16:07 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:56 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Geophysical Union |
Identification Number: | 10.1029/2021ja029998 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:185016 |
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