Seasonal variation in nighttime NO radiative cooling as observed by TIMED/SABER in lower thermosphere during solar maximum and solar minimum

TL;DR

This study investigates seasonal and latitudinal variations in nighttime NO radiative cooling in the lower thermosphere during different solar activity periods, highlighting the influence of temperature, composition, and solar heating asymmetries.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of how NO radiative cooling varies seasonally and latitudinally during solar maximum and minimum, incorporating observational and modeled data.

Findings

NO radiative cooling exhibits summer-winter variability.

Maximum cooling altitudes are inversely related to cooling intensity.

Polar and summer hemispheric regions show higher NO densities and cooling.

Abstract

Both composition and temperature play a crucial role in determining the NO radiative cooling in lower thermosphere as observed by TIMED/SABER. In this work, we present a detailed investigation of seasonal variation in thermospheric NO radiative cooling. We have carried forward the investigation of \cite{li2018} regarding the variations in local nighttime peak NO radiative cooling and its altitude during solar maximum and solar minimum conditions. By analyzing latitudinal changes over quiet times for each month in year 2018, it is evident that both the investigative parameters exhibit summer-winter variability. The qualitative contribution of different species (i.e., NO, and O), and temperatures in determining the vertical profile of NO radiative cooling for different latitudes is investigated by utilizing the NRLMSISE-00 estimated parameters, and SNOE observed NO density. The temperature, NO density, meridional wind, and associated compositional variations due to asymmetrical solar heating in both the hemispheres during solar minimum conditions seem to be the dominating factor in controlling the NO radiative cooling during different seasons. The altitudes at which maximum cooling by NO occurs exhibits an inverse correlation with the amount of radiative cooling. The region of enhanced NO densities (polar and summer hemispheric low-mid latitude regions) have larger NO radiative cooling with lower peak altitudes in comparison to other regions (equatorial to winter hemispheric low-mid latitude regions), where NO radiative cooling is low with higher peak altitude values.