Project Details
Projekt
Observed change in the thermosphere and TI- coupling
Applicant
Professor Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Kusche
Subject Area
Geodesy, Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics, Cartography
Atmospheric Science
Atmospheric Science
Term
since 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 462853228
Project 1 aims at providing improved constraints on neutral density at multi-decadal time scales, during quiet and excited states of the thermosphere, and on its connection with potential drivers of change. This includes studying thermosphere-ionosphere coupling, and whether this is well represented in models. The overarching questions are: What is the best estimate for long-term change of neutral density (i.e. decrease as seen currently from geodetic satellites), and to what extent is this affected by problems with biases and data processing? Can observed long-term change be attributed to climate-related cooling of the thermosphere and other effects, in the presence of large variations be-tween solar cycles? What would be the emergence time for individual effects, with the present or the future observing system (constellations and instruments)? How are systematic changes related to the state of the ionosphere? How well can we address this with modelling for different regions and daytimes? We will investigate the response of neutral density to solar EUV and solar wind forcing and short-term effects, for example, gravity waves or geomagnetic storms, to understand their potential effect on trends, and to disentangle problems in model sensitivity representation. We will investigate how uncertainties in density retrieval (e.g. gas surface interaction, radiation pressure) affect our conclusions. The project will make use of data-assimilative physical modelling, and it will work closely with project 2 on representing thermosphere-ionosphere coupling, on the basis of observed data. we will provide information on thermosphere dy-namics to projects 3 and 5, and engage in magnetic storm modelling studies with project 6 and others in the RU.
DFG Programme
Research Units
