Recent Satellite Measurements of Upper Atmospheric Composition
Document ID: 34
USAF, Cambridge Research Laboratories, Hanscom AFB, Bedford, MA, U.S.A.
Presented: Proceedings of Open Meetings of Working Groups on Physical Sciences of the Eighteenth Plenary Meeting of COSPAR
Varna, Bulgaria, 29 May-7 June 1975
Abstract
Two mass spectrometer experiments were included among the instruments on a recently launched US Air Force research satellite. The satellite was designed to study the density, composition and heating sources in the thermosphere. Measurements were performed during a geomagnetic storm of moderate intensity. Results show the N2 density was enhanced by a factor of two, Ar by a factor of ten, and O is unchanged or slightly lowered near the 150 km region. At higher altitudes near 400 km, the O and N2 concentrations are both increased. These results substantiate the earlier measurements of this laboratory and recent results of other groups.
During the period of 8-12 November 1974, a sudden commencement and the early development of a geomagnetic storm were studied. The larger effects of the sudden commencement of 8 November were delayed by about one day. The effects of the geomagnetic storm of 11 November followed the time history of Kp at low altitudes in the auroral region with a delay of about 6 hours at mid-latitudes. The largest changes in the neutral atmosphere occurred in the auroral region between 650 and 800 geomagnetic latitude.
Keywords: thermosphere, mass spectrometer data, gas composition
| Citation: | "Recent Satellite Measurements of Upper Atmospheric Composition", Philbrick, C. R., SPACE RESEARCH, Vol. XVI, COSPAR (Committee on Space Research), 1976, pp. 290 - 295 |