Research Highlights

HIWIND (High altitude Interferometer WIND experiment) is a balloon borne Fabry Perot interferometer (FPI) for daytime thermospheric wind observations. In this paper, we examine the summer polar cap thermospheric winds observed by HIWIND with the RISR-C (Resolute Incoherent Scatter Radar-Canada) observed ion drifts and electron densities.

We use the CESM2-WACCM, to study the importance of ozone in the vertical coupling between lower and upper atmosphere during SSWs. During SSWs, the build-up of stratospheric ozone concentrations at tropical latitudes and its increased asymmetrical distribution carries the potential to affect the generation of migrating and non-migrating semidiurnal solar tides.

We report observations of small-scale swirls seen in the solar chromosphere. They are typically 2 Mm in diameter and last around 10 minutes. Using spectropolarimetric observations obtained by the CRisp Imaging Spectro- Polarimeter at the Swedish 1 m Solar Telescope, we identify and study a set of swirls in chromospheric Ca II 8542 Å and Hα lines as well as in the photospheric Fe I line.

Availability of far ultraviolet observations of Earth’s dayglow by the NASA Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission presents an unparalleled opportunity for upper atmosphere radiance data assimilation.

Simulations with the Community Earth System Model 2 using the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model configuration, known as CESM2(WACCM6), show evidence of dynamical coupling from the high latitudes of the winter middle atmosphere to the tropics and the middle and high latitudes of the summer hemisphere.

Recently published, precise stellar photometry of 72 Sun-like stars obtained at the Fairborn Observatory between 1993 and 2017 is used to set limits on the solar forcing of Earth’s atmosphere of ±4.5 W m−2 since 1750. This compares with the +2.2 ± 1.1 W m−2 IPCC estimate for anthropogenic forcing.