A Global Study of Meridional Winds in the Thermosphere

在过去的几年里，PI发展、改进和应用了一种从电离层F2峰值电子密度hmax的高度确定高层大气经向风的技术。最近的研究普遍验证了这一方法，继续提供资金将使该计划进入应用和验证阶段。最近的工作产生的有趣的结果将被追寻。从hmF2推算经向风是一种补充非相干散射雷达和法布里-珀罗技术的技术。目前，它提供了在几乎全球范围内确定热层中性风的唯一方法。这种方法有希望产生与其他技术精度相当的结果，并具有在全球范围内常规和系统地测量hmF2的优势。其他工作将集中在中性风的几个有趣方面，如风暴时间行为和季节性、太阳周期和潮汐效应。***

During the past several years the PI has developed, refined, and applied a technique for determining meridional winds in the upper atmosphere from the height of the ionospheric F2 peak electron density hmax. Recent studies have generally verified the approach and continued funding will move the program into the application and validation phase. Interesting results arising out of recent work will be pursued. The derivation of meridional winds from hmF2 is being established as a technique that complements the incoherent scatter radar and Fabry-Perot techniques. It currently provides the only way to determine neutral winds in the thermosphere on a nearly global basis. This method shows promise of producing results comparable in accuracy to other techniques, and has the advantage that measurements of hmF2 are made routinely and systematically on a global scale. Additional work will concentrate on several interesting aspects of the neutral wind such as storm-time behavior and seasonal, solar cyclical and tidal effects. ***