Premium
Trends in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere: Recent progress
Author(s) -
Laštovička Jan
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/jgra.50341
Subject(s) - thermosphere , ionosphere , atmosphere (unit) , mesosphere , atmospheric sciences , environmental science , meteorology , physics , astronomy , stratosphere
The upper atmosphere and embedded ionosphere respond to increasing concentration of greenhouse gases and other drivers of long‐term changes and trends. In this paper, the progress reached in investigations of long‐term trends in the upper atmosphere and mesosphere in the last 2 years is briefly summarized. First information appeared about trends in electron temperature (positive trend), thermospheric neutral wind (complex pattern), and total electron content (nonnegative trend). Some new information created partial apparent discrepancies, particularly in the case of ion temperature trends. The quantitative discrepancy between observation‐based and model‐based trends in mesospheric temperatures and in polar mesospheric clouds has largely been removed. The first observations of trends in CO 2 concentration in the lower thermosphere suggest a way how to reduce the observation‐model difference in the thermosphere and ionosphere. The scenario of trends in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere is now more complete than it was 2 years ago, but still some gaps and discrepancies occur for further investigations.