Thermospheric Temperature and Density Variability During 3 to 4 February 2022 Minor Geomagnetic Storm: The SpaceX Satellite Loss Event Journal Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Themospheric conditions during a minor geomagnetic event of 3 and 4; February 2022 has been investigated using disk temperature; (T$_{disk}$) observations from Global-scale Observations of the; Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission and model simulations. GOLD observed that; the T$_{disk}$ increases by more than 60 K during the storm event; when compared with pre-storm quiet days. A comparison of the; T$_{disk}$ with effective temperatures (i.e., a weighted average; based on airglow emission layer) from Mass Spectrometer Incoherent; Scatter radar version 2 (MSIS2) and Multiscale Atmosphere-Geospace; Environment (MAGE) models shows that MAGE outperforms MSIS2 during this; particular event. MAGE underestimates the T$_{eff}$ by about; 2%, whereas MSIS2 underestimates it by; 7%. As temperature enhancements lead to an expansion of; the thermosphere and resulting density changes, the value of the; temperature enhancement observed by GOLD can be utilized to find a GOLD; equivalent MSIS2 (GOLD-MSIS) simulation $textendash$; from a set of MSIS2 runs obtained by varying geomagnetic ap index; values. From the MSIS2 runs we find that an ap value of 116 nT produces; a T$_{eff}$ perturbation that matches with the GOLD T$_{disk}$; enhancement. Note that during this storm the highest value of the 3 hr; cadence ap was 56 nT. From the MSIS-GOLD run we found that the; thermospheric density enhancement varies with altitude from; 15% (at 150 km) to 80% (at 500 km).; Independent simulations from the MAGE model also show a comparable; enhancement in neutral density. These results suggest that even a modest; storm could impact the thermospheric densities significantly.

publication date

  • July 21, 2022

has restriction

  • hybrid

Date in CU Experts

  • August 2, 2022 1:23 AM

Full Author List

  • Laskar FI; Sutton EK; Lin D; Greer KR; Aryal S; Cai X; Pedatella NM; Eastes RW; Wang W; Codrescu MV

author count

  • 11

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