Trends in the Airglow Temperatures in the MLT Region—Part 1: Model Simulations

Airglow intensity-weighted temperature variations induced by the CO<sub>2</sub> increase, solar cycle variation (F10.7 as a proxy) and geomagnetic activity (Ap index as a proxy) in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT) region were simulated to quantitatively assess their influences...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tai-Yin Huang, Michael Vanyo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2020-05-01
Series:Atmosphere
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/11/5/468
Description
Summary:Airglow intensity-weighted temperature variations induced by the CO<sub>2</sub> increase, solar cycle variation (F10.7 as a proxy) and geomagnetic activity (Ap index as a proxy) in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere (MLT) region were simulated to quantitatively assess their influences on airglow temperatures. Two airglow models, MACD-00 and OHCD-00, were used to simulate the O(<sup>1</sup>S) greenline, O<sub>2</sub>(0,1) atmospheric band, and OH(8,3) airglow temperature variations induced by these influences to deduce the trends. Our results show that all three airglow temperatures display a linear trend of ~−0.5 K/decade, in response to the increase of CO<sub>2</sub> gas concentration. The airglow temperatures were found to be highly correlated with Ap index, and moderately correlated with F10.7, with the OH temperature showing an anti-correlation. The F10.7 and Ap index trends were found to be ~−0.7 ± 0.28 K/100SFU and ~−0.1 ± 0.02 K/nT in the OH temperature, 4.1 ± 0.7 K/100SFU and ~0.6 ± 0.03 K/nT in the O<sub>2</sub> temperature and ~2.0 ± 0.6 K/100SFU and ~0.4 ± 0.03 K/nT in the O1S temperature. These results indicate that geomagnetic activity can have a rather significant effect on the temperatures that had not been looked at previously.
ISSN:2073-4433