Distinguishing Density and Wind Perturbations in the Equatorial Thermosphere Anomaly

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper, the equatorial thermosphere anomaly (ETA) is investigated using accelerometer measurements to determine whether the feature is density‐dominated, wind‐dominated, or some combination of the two. An ascending‐descending accelerometry (ADA) technique is introduced to address the density‐wind ambiguity that appears when interpreting the ETA in atmospheric drag acceleration analyses. This technique separates ascending and descending acceleration measurements to determine if a wind's directionality influences the interpretation of the observed ETA feature. The ADA technique is applied to accelerometer measurements taken from the Challenging Minisatellite Payload mission and has revealed that the ETA is primarily density‐dominated from 9:00 to 16:00 local time (LT) near 400 km altitude, with the acceleration perturbations behaving similarly between 2003 and 2004 across all seasons. This finding suggests that the perturbations in the acceleration due to in‐track wind perturbations are small compared to the perturbations due to mass density, while indicating that the formation mechanisms across these local times are similar and persistent. The results also revealed that in the terminator region at 18:00 LT the acceleration perturbations deviate appreciably between ascending and descending passes, indicating different or multiple processes occurring at this local time compared to the 9:00–16:00 LT ascribed to the ETA. These results help constrain ETA formation theories to specific local times and thermospheric property responses without the use of supplemental wind measurements, while also indicating regions where in‐track winds cannot always be neglected.