Two New Papers Show Need for GDC

June 4, 2024

Uneven Energy Distribution in Northern and Southern Hemispheres

On May 12, 2024, AGU's Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics published "Inter-Hemispheric Energy Input Into the Ionosphere-Thermosphere System During Magnetic Storms: What We Can and Cannot Learn From DMSP Observations" by Denny M. Oliveira and Eftyhia Zesta.

"Researchers commonly assume that the northern hemisphere receives significantly more energy in comparison to the southern hemisphere, regardless of seasons and geomagnetic conditions (i.e. storms)," says Oliveira, one of the scientists affiliated with GDC's Noise Eliminating Magnetometer Instrument in a Small Integrated System (NEMISIS) instrument.

"In this paper, we show that the northern hemisphere receives slightly more energy than the southern hemisphere from a long-term perspective, but the northern hemisphere receives considerably more energy as storms become more intense. GDC will help us understand the complexities of this energy distribution by covering all latitudes and local times not covered by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, performing unprecedented energy measurements in micro scales, and seeing more intense geomagnetic storms due to ramping solar activity in the upcoming years and decades."

Oliveira et al. can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JA032486 (Full access required)

Novel Techniques for Measuring Density and Wind

Just weeks later, the same journal published "Distinguishing Density and Wind Perturbations in the Equatorial Thermosphere Anomaly" by Buynovskiy et al. on June 1, 2024.

"The recent study by Buynovskiy et al. (2024) indicate low-latitude thermosphere density structure is responsible for the observed accelerations detected by spacecraft, but thermosphere winds could be responsible for the formation of the thermosphere density structure," says Jeffrey P. Thayer, co-author and Principle Investigator for GDC's Neutral Exploration Utilizing in-situ Sensors (NExUS) Interdisciplinary Science Team. "GDC’s Modular Spectrometer for Atmosphere and Ionosphere Characterization (MoSAIC) instrument will resolve whether this self-balancing process of the thermosphere is actually happening by its ability to observe thermospheric winds, temperatures and density from a common volume simultaneously and across multiple local times."

Buynovskiy et al. can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1029/2024JA032547 (Open access)