Identification

Title

Temporal and spatial variability of multiscale neutral density perturbations during stormâ€time: Insights from multiâ€satellite observations

Abstract

The neutral density perturbations exhibit multiscale features during geomagnetic storms, playing a crucial role in ionosphere‐thermosphere (I‐T) dynamics. However, the variations across various temporal and spatial scales remain underexplored. This study compared Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite data with simulations of Global Ionosphere‐Thermosphere Model (GITM) during the 2015 St. Patrick's Day storm. In general, GITM captures large‐ and mesoscale density structures well, with some underestimations of mesoscale variations due to inaccuracy in the geomagnetic forcing. GRACE‐A/B distinguish between temporal and spatial variations, revealing enhanced mesoscale structures at high latitudes over 35 s (temporal) and 220 km (spatial) scales. Virtual satellite results show that three latitudinally spaced satellites efficiently capture the longitudinal propagation of the large‐scale traveling atmospheric disturbances (LSTADs), while six longitudinally spaced satellites ( apart) significantly improve polar map accuracy. The logarithmic string‐of‐pearl configuration in the latitudinal plane adequately extracts neutral density variations across different temporal and spatial scales. Temporal variations, , increase with the time scale with a threshold of 3 min for clear detection, while the change rate, , decreases with time. Spatial variation in magnitude increases with spatial scale with a threshold of or 418 km to generate clear variation (>10%). However, the neutral density gradient, , remains roughly the same on different spatial scales. Coherence analysis was applied to assess the relationship between satellite distance and observed scales, highlighting the importance of multi‐satellite observations in understanding of multiscale thermosphere dynamics.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7930zmm

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2025-06-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

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Use constraints

<span style="font-family:Arial;font-size:10pt;font-style:normal;" data-sheets-root="1">Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.</span>

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact