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Browsing by Author "Aryal, S."

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    GOLD Observations of the Thermospheric Response to the 10–12 May 2024 Gannon Superstorm
    Evans, J.S.; Correira, J.; Lumpe, J.D.; Eastes, R.W.; Gan, Q.; Laskar, F.I.; Aryal, S.; Wang, W.; Burns, A.G.; Beland, S.; Cai, X.; Codrescu, M.; England, Scott L.; Greer, K.; Krywonos, A.; McClintock, W.E.; Plummer, T.; Veibell, V. (Wiley, 2024-08-16)
    After days of intense solar activity, active region AR3664 launched seven CMEs toward Earth producing an extreme G5 geomagnetic storm commencing at 17:05 UT on 10 May 2024. The storm impacted power grids, disrupted precision navigational systems used by farming equipment, and generated aurora seen around the globe. The storm produced remarkable effects on composition, temperature, and dynamics in the Earth's thermosphere that were observed by NASA's Global‐scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission and are reported here for the first time. We use synoptic disk images of ΣO/N₂ and neutral temperature (at ∼160 km) measured by GOLD to directly link dynamics resulting from the storm with dramatic changes in thermospheric composition and temperature. We observe a heretofore unseen spatial morphology simultaneously in ΣO/N₂, neutral temperature, and total electron content. Equator‐to‐pole temperature differences reach 400 K with high latitude peak neutral temperatures near 160 km exceeding 1400 K.
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    Initial Observations by the GOLD Mission
    Eastes, R. W.; McClintock, William E.; Burns, A. G.; Anderson, D. N.; Andersson, L.; Aryal, S.; Budzien, S. A.; Cai, X.; Codrescu, M.; Correira, J. T.; Daniell, R. E.; Dymond, K. F.; England, Scott L.; Eparvier, F. G.; Evans, J. S.; Foroosh, H.; Gan, Q.; Greer, K. R.; Karan, D. K.; Krywonos, A.; Laskar, F., I; Lumpe, J. D.; Martinis, C. R.; McPhate, J. B.; Oberheide, J.; Siegmund, O. H.; Solomon, S. C.; Veibel, V.; Woods, T. N. (2020-07)
    The NASA Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission has flown an ultraviolet-imaging spectrograph on SES-14, a communications satellite in geostationary orbit at 47.5 degrees W longitude. That instrument observes the Earth's far ultraviolet (FUV) airglow at similar to 134-162 nm using two identical channels. The observations performed include limb scans, stellar occultations, and images of the sunlit and nightside disk from 6:10 to 00:40 universal time each day. Initial analyses reveal interesting and unexpected results as well as the potential for further studies of the Earth's thermosphere-ionosphere system and its responses to solar-geomagnetic forcing and atmospheric dynamics. Thermospheric composition ratios for major constituents, O and N-2, temperatures near 160 km, and exospheric temperatures are retrieved from the daytime observations. Molecular oxygen (O-2) densities are measured using stellar occultations. At night, emission from radiative recombination in the ionosphericFregion is used to quantify ionospheric density variations in the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA). Regions of depletedFregion electron density are frequently evident, even during the current solar minimum. These depletions are caused by the "plasma fountain effect" and are associated with the instabilities, scintillations, or "spreadF" seen in other types of observations, and GOLD makes unique observations for their study. Plain Language Summary The NASA Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission has flown a dual-channel, ultraviolet-imaging spectrograph on SES-14, a communications satellite in geostationary orbit at 47.5 degrees W longitude. That instrument observes the Earth's far ultraviolet (FUV) airglow at similar to 134-162 nm. The observations performed include images of the Earth's sunlit and nightside disk, limb scans, and stellar occultations, from 6:10 to 00:40 universal time each day. Initial analyses reveal interesting and unexpected results as well as the potential for further studies of the Earth's thermosphere-ionosphere system and its responses to solar-geomagnetic forcing and atmospheric dynamics. Thermospheric temperatures and composition ratios for major constituents, O and N-2, near 160-km altitude and exospheric temperatures are retrieved from the daytime observations. Molecular oxygen (O-2) densities are measured using stellar occultations. At night, emission from radiative recombination in the ionospheric F region is used to quantify ionospheric density variations in the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA). Regions of depleted F region electron density are frequently evident in the EIA, even during the current solar minimum.