TIME after TIMED - A perspective on Thermosphere-Ionosphere Mesosphere science and future observational needs after the TIMED mission epoch
Abstract
The past 40 years have been a true golden age for space-based observations of the Earth's middle atmosphere (stratosphere to thermosphere). Numerous instruments and missions have been developed and flown to explore the thermal structure, chemical composition, and energy budget of the middle atmosphere. A primary motivation for these observations was the need to understand the photochemistry of stratospheric ozone and its potential depletion by anthropogenic means. As technology evolved, observations were extended higher and higher, into regions previously unobserved from space by optical remote sensing techniques. In the 1990's, NASA initiated the Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamcis (TIMED) mission to explore one of the last frontiers of the atmosphere - the region between 60 and 180 km - then referred to as "the ignorosphere." Today, we have 15 years of detailed observations from this remarkable satellite and its 4 instruments, and are recognizing rapid climate change that is occurring above 60 km. The upcoming ICON and GOLD missions will afford new opportunities for scientific discovery by combining data from all three missions. However, it has become clear that continued observations beyond TIMED are required to understand the upper atmosphere as a system that is fully coupled from the edge of Space to the surface of the Earth. In this talk we will review the current status of knowledge of the basic state properties of the thermosphere-ionosphere-mesosphere (TIME) system and will discuss future observations that are required to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the entire TIME system, especially the effects of long term change that are already underway.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AGUFMSA21C..01M
- Keywords:
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- 0341 Middle atmosphere: constituent transport and chemistry;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTUREDE: 3367 Theoretical modeling;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSESDE: 2427 Ionosphere/atmosphere interactions;
- IONOSPHEREDE: 7954 Magnetic storms;
- SPACE WEATHER