First Flight Results from the Winds In-Track Instrument on the Dynamo2 Mission

The first and second successful flights of the Winds In-Track (WIT) instrument were flown in July 2021 on the Dynamo2 sounding rockets to measure in-track neutral wind speed in the thermosphere/ionosphere. The Dynamo2 mission included two identical sounding rockets that were launched into well developed meridional daytime dynamo currents. The WIT was part of the neutral wind instrumentation suite to measure the neutral wind vector in the ram direction of the rockets. Gas enters the WIT on the ram side and is modulated by a chopper wheel that allows a puff of gas to travel a known distance and is detected by a fast ionization gauge. Neutral wind speed results from the WIT flights into the thermosphere/ionosphere as a function of altitude will be presented and contrasted to the ICON satellite wind profiles, along with a discussion of this neutral wind speed measurement technique.