On the fast movements of the thermosphere: an interpretation

• Main Authors: Lilensten, J., Amblard, Pierre-Olivier
• Other Authors: Laboratoire de Planétologie de Grenoble (LPG), Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut national des sciences de l'Univers (INSU - CNRS)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), Environnements et outils pour le Génie Logiciel Industriel (ADELE), Laboratoire d'Informatique de Grenoble (LIG), Université Pierre Mendès France - Grenoble 2 (UPMF)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble (INPG)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Université Pierre Mendès France - Grenoble 2 (UPMF)-Université Joseph Fourier - Grenoble 1 (UJF)-Institut polytechnique de Grenoble - Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP )-Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble (INPG)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2000
• Subjects: [SDU.OCEAN]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Ocean; Atmosphere; [SDU.STU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Earth Sciences; EISCAT
• Online Access: https://hal.science/hal-00329172; https://hal.science/hal-00329172/document; https://hal.science/hal-00329172/file/angeo-18-1651-2000.pdf

International audience We examine the oscillations of the meridional neutral wind in the F region as seen by the EISCAT radar. We propose an interpretation in term of eddies ( tourbillons ) of typical size of a few tens to a few hundreds of kilometers. The observed rotation velocity is a few hundreds of meters per second. We suggest that the tourbillons are a common feature of thermospheric movements. We propose an optical experiment to check the validity of this assumption. Key words: Atmospheric composition and structure (thermosphere · composition and chemistry) · Ionosphere (ionosphere · atmosphere interactions)