Work

Thermospheric wind and temperature observations from El Leoncito Observatory in southern South America

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: A Fabry–Perot interferometer (FPI) installed at El Leoncito Observatory, Argentina (31.8 o S, 69.3 o W, 18 o mag lat), provides data on neutral winds and temperature over southern South America, a region lacking ground-based thermospheric observations. We present the climatology of neutral winds obtained from 630.0 nm airglow emissions. Results are shown for different seasons and different levels of solar activity. Temperature results are shown only for medium-to-high solar activity conditions. The modeled neutral winds show better agreement during high solar activity conditions. The modeled temperatures underestimate the observed values and do not reproduce the midnight temperature maximum observations. These observations will help improve model predictions of thermospheric parameters for this region.

Source: Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences

DOI: 10.3389/fspas.2025.1666096

Authors: C. Martinis, J. W. Meriwether, L. A. Navarro

Institutions: Boston University, New Jersey Institute of Technology, University of Colorado Boulder

Language: English

Topic: Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics

Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,353

OpenAlex ID: W4414520989

FWCI: 0.484

Cites: 21

Cited by: 1

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