Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences (Jan 2023)
Plasma-neutral interactions in the lower thermosphere-ionosphere: The need for in situ measurements to address focused questions
- Theodoros Sarris,
- Minna Palmroth,
- Minna Palmroth,
- Anita Aikio,
- Stephan Christoph Buchert,
- James Clemmons,
- Mark Clilverd,
- Iannis Dandouras,
- Eelco Doornbos,
- Lindsay Victoria Goodwin,
- Maxime Grandin,
- Roderick Heelis,
- Nickolay Ivchenko,
- Therese Moretto-Jørgensen,
- Guram Kervalishvili,
- David Knudsen,
- Han-Li Liu,
- Gang Lu,
- David M. Malaspina,
- Octav Marghitu,
- Astrid Maute,
- Wojciech J. Miloch,
- Nils Olsen,
- Robert Pfaff,
- Claudia Stolle,
- Elsayed Talaat,
- Jeffrey Thayer,
- Stelios Tourgaidis,
- Pekka T. Verronen,
- Masatoshi Yamauchi,
- Masatoshi Yamauchi
Affiliations
- Theodoros Sarris
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece
- Minna Palmroth
- Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Minna Palmroth
- Space and Earth Observation Centre, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland
- Anita Aikio
- Space Physics and Astronomy Research Unit, University of Oulu, Finland
- Stephan Christoph Buchert
- Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), Uppsala, Sweden
- James Clemmons
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, United States
- Mark Clilverd
- British Antarctic Survey (UKRI-NERC), Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Iannis Dandouras
- British Antarctic Survey (UKRI-NERC), Cambridge, United Kingdom
- Eelco Doornbos
- Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI), De Bilt, Netherlands
- Lindsay Victoria Goodwin
- 0New Jersey Institute of Technology, Newark, NJ, United States
- Maxime Grandin
- Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Roderick Heelis
- 1Center for Space Sciences, University of Texas at Dallas, Dallas, TX, United States
- Nickolay Ivchenko
- 2Division of Space and Plasma Physics, Royal Institute of Technology KTH, Stockholm, Sweden
- Therese Moretto-Jørgensen
- 3NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA, United States
- Guram Kervalishvili
- 4GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany
- David Knudsen
- 5Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
- Han-Li Liu
- 5Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
- Gang Lu
- 6High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, United States
- David M. Malaspina
- 7Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, United States
- Octav Marghitu
- 8Institute for Space Sciences, Bucharest, Romania
- Astrid Maute
- 6High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, United States
- Wojciech J. Miloch
- 9Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Nils Olsen
- 0DTU Space, Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark
- Robert Pfaff
- 1Heliophysics Science Division, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
- Claudia Stolle
- 2Leibniz Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Rostock, Kuehlungsborn, Germany
- Elsayed Talaat
- 3National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Washington, DC, United States
- Jeffrey Thayer
- 4Space Weather Technology, Research, and Education Center (SWx TREC), University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States
- Stelios Tourgaidis
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, Xanthi, Greece
- Pekka T. Verronen
- Space and Earth Observation Centre, Finnish Meteorological Institute, Helsinki, Finland
- Masatoshi Yamauchi
- 4Space Weather Technology, Research, and Education Center (SWx TREC), University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, CO, United States
- Masatoshi Yamauchi
- 5Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF), Kiruna, Sweden
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2022.1063190
- Journal volume & issue
-
Vol. 9
Abstract
The lower thermosphere-ionosphere (LTI) is a key transition region between Earth’s atmosphere and space. Interactions between ions and neutrals maximize within the LTI and in particular at altitudes from 100 to 200 km, which is the least visited region of the near-Earth environment. The lack of in situ co-temporal and co-spatial measurements of all relevant parameters and their elusiveness to most remote-sensing methods means that the complex interactions between its neutral and charged constituents remain poorly characterized to this date. This lack of measurements, together with the ambiguity in the quantification of key processes in the 100–200 km altitude range affect current modeling efforts to expand atmospheric models upward to include the LTI and limit current space weather prediction capabilities. We present focused questions in the LTI that are related to the complex interactions between its neutral and charged constituents. These questions concern core physical processes that govern the energetics, dynamics, and chemistry of the LTI and need to be addressed as fundamental and long-standing questions in this critically unexplored boundary region. We also outline the range of in situ measurements that are needed to unambiguously quantify key LTI processes within this region, and present elements of an in situ concept based on past proposed mission concepts.
Keywords
- lower thermosphere ionosphere
- plasma neutral interactions
- in situ measurements
- decadal survey
- atmosphere space transition region
- altitudes below 200 km
