Lower Thermospheric Material Transport via Lagrangian Coherent Structures.

ABSTRACT: We show that inter-model variation due to under-constraint by observations impacts the ability to predict material transport in the lower thermosphere. Lagrangian coherent structures (LCSs), indicating regions of maximal separation (or convergence) in a time-varying flow, are derived in the lower thermosphere from models for several space shuttle water vapor plume events. We find that inter-model differences in thermospheric transport manifest in LCSs in a way that is more stringent than mean wind analyses. LCSs defined using horizontal flow fields from the Specified Dynamics version of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with thermosphere-ionosphere eXtension (SD-WACCMX) at 109 km altitude are compared to Global Ultraviolet Imager (GUVI) observations of the space shuttle main eng

SUBMITTER: Datta-Barua S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9286062 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature