Validation of SSUSI-derived auroral electron densities: Comparisons to EISCAT data
The coupling of the atmosphere to the space environment has become recognized as an important driver of atmospheric chemistry and dynamics. In order to quantify the effects of particle precipitation on the atmosphere, reliable global energy inputs on spatial scales commensurate with particle precipi...
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ftdatacite:10.48550/arxiv.2103.08254 2023-05-15T16:04:28+02:00 Validation of SSUSI-derived auroral electron densities: Comparisons to EISCAT data Bender, Stefan Espy, Patrick J. Paxton, Larry J. 2021 https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2103.08254 https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.08254 unknown arXiv https://dx.doi.org/10.5194/angeo-39-899-2021 Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 CC-BY Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph Earth and Planetary Astrophysics astro-ph.EP Space Physics physics.space-ph FOS Physical sciences article-journal Article ScholarlyArticle Text 2021 ftdatacite https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2103.08254 https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-39-899-2021 2022-03-10T14:51:56Z The coupling of the atmosphere to the space environment has become recognized as an important driver of atmospheric chemistry and dynamics. In order to quantify the effects of particle precipitation on the atmosphere, reliable global energy inputs on spatial scales commensurate with particle precipitation variations are required. To that end, we have validated auroral electron densities derived from the SSUSI data products for average electron energy and electron energy flux by comparing them to EISCAT electron density profiles. This comparison shows that SSUSI FUV observations can be used to provide ionization rate and electron density profiles throughout the auroral region. The SSUSI on board the DMSP Block 5D3 satellites provide nearly hourly, 3000 km wide, 10 km x 10 km UV snapshots of auroral emissions. Here we use the SSUSI-derived energies and fluxes as input to standard parametrizations in order to obtain electron-density profiles in the E region (90--150 km), which are then compared to EISCAT ground-based electron density measurements. We compare the data from DMSP F17 and F18 to the Tromsø UHF radar profiles. We find that differentiating between the magnetic local time (MLT) morning (03:00--11:00 MLT) and evening (15:00--23:00 MLT) provides the best fit to the ground-based data. The data agree well in the MLT morning sector using a Maxwellian electron spectrum, while in the evening sector using a Gaussian spectrum and accounting for backscattered electrons achieved optimum agreement with EISCAT. Depending on the satellite and MLT, the median of the differences varies between 0% and 20% above 105 km (F17) and $\pm$15% above 100 km (F18). Because of the large density gradient below those altitudes, the relative differences get larger, albeit without a substantially increasing absolute difference, with virtually no statistically significant differences at the 1-sigma level. : 12 pages, 5 figures, publisehd in Ann. Geophys, 2021 Article in Journal/Newspaper EISCAT Tromsø DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) Tromsø |
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Open Polar |
collection |
DataCite Metadata Store (German National Library of Science and Technology) |
op_collection_id |
ftdatacite |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph Earth and Planetary Astrophysics astro-ph.EP Space Physics physics.space-ph FOS Physical sciences |
spellingShingle |
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph Earth and Planetary Astrophysics astro-ph.EP Space Physics physics.space-ph FOS Physical sciences Bender, Stefan Espy, Patrick J. Paxton, Larry J. Validation of SSUSI-derived auroral electron densities: Comparisons to EISCAT data |
topic_facet |
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics physics.ao-ph Earth and Planetary Astrophysics astro-ph.EP Space Physics physics.space-ph FOS Physical sciences |
description |
The coupling of the atmosphere to the space environment has become recognized as an important driver of atmospheric chemistry and dynamics. In order to quantify the effects of particle precipitation on the atmosphere, reliable global energy inputs on spatial scales commensurate with particle precipitation variations are required. To that end, we have validated auroral electron densities derived from the SSUSI data products for average electron energy and electron energy flux by comparing them to EISCAT electron density profiles. This comparison shows that SSUSI FUV observations can be used to provide ionization rate and electron density profiles throughout the auroral region. The SSUSI on board the DMSP Block 5D3 satellites provide nearly hourly, 3000 km wide, 10 km x 10 km UV snapshots of auroral emissions. Here we use the SSUSI-derived energies and fluxes as input to standard parametrizations in order to obtain electron-density profiles in the E region (90--150 km), which are then compared to EISCAT ground-based electron density measurements. We compare the data from DMSP F17 and F18 to the Tromsø UHF radar profiles. We find that differentiating between the magnetic local time (MLT) morning (03:00--11:00 MLT) and evening (15:00--23:00 MLT) provides the best fit to the ground-based data. The data agree well in the MLT morning sector using a Maxwellian electron spectrum, while in the evening sector using a Gaussian spectrum and accounting for backscattered electrons achieved optimum agreement with EISCAT. Depending on the satellite and MLT, the median of the differences varies between 0% and 20% above 105 km (F17) and $\pm$15% above 100 km (F18). Because of the large density gradient below those altitudes, the relative differences get larger, albeit without a substantially increasing absolute difference, with virtually no statistically significant differences at the 1-sigma level. : 12 pages, 5 figures, publisehd in Ann. Geophys, 2021 |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bender, Stefan Espy, Patrick J. Paxton, Larry J. |
author_facet |
Bender, Stefan Espy, Patrick J. Paxton, Larry J. |
author_sort |
Bender, Stefan |
title |
Validation of SSUSI-derived auroral electron densities: Comparisons to EISCAT data |
title_short |
Validation of SSUSI-derived auroral electron densities: Comparisons to EISCAT data |
title_full |
Validation of SSUSI-derived auroral electron densities: Comparisons to EISCAT data |
title_fullStr |
Validation of SSUSI-derived auroral electron densities: Comparisons to EISCAT data |
title_full_unstemmed |
Validation of SSUSI-derived auroral electron densities: Comparisons to EISCAT data |
title_sort |
validation of ssusi-derived auroral electron densities: comparisons to eiscat data |
publisher |
arXiv |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://dx.doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2103.08254 https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.08254 |
geographic |
Tromsø |
geographic_facet |
Tromsø |
genre |
EISCAT Tromsø |
genre_facet |
EISCAT Tromsø |
op_relation |
https://dx.doi.org/10.5194/angeo-39-899-2021 |
op_rights |
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode cc-by-4.0 |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2103.08254 https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-39-899-2021 |
_version_ |
1766400060344500224 |