1. Long-Term Density Trend in the Mesosphere and Lower Thermosphere from Occultations of the Crab Nebula with X-Ray Astronomy Satellites
- Author
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Satoru Katsuda, Teruaki Enoto, Andrea N. Lommen, Koji Mori, Yuko Motizuki, Motoki Nakajima, Nathaniel C. Ruhl, Kosuke Sato, Gunter Stober, Makoto S. Tashiro, Yukikatsu Terada, and Kent S. Wood
- Subjects
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) ,High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) ,upper atmosphere ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Space Physics (physics.space-ph) ,Physics - Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics ,Geophysics ,Physics - Space Physics ,Space and Planetary Science ,X-rays ,Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph) ,density trend ,occultation ,the Crab Nebula ,Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics - Abstract
We present long-term density trends of the Earth's upper atmosphere at altitudes between 71 and 116 km, based on atmospheric occultations of the Crab Nebula observed with X-ray astronomy satellites, ASCA, RXTE, Suzaku, NuSTAR, and Hitomi. The combination of the five satellites provides a time period of 28 years from 1994 to 2022. To suppress seasonal and latitudinal variations, we concentrate on the data taken in autumn (49 < doy < 111) and spring (235 < doy < 297) in the northern hemisphere with latitudes of 0°–40°. With this constraint, local times are automatically limited either around noon or midnight. We obtain four sets (two seasons × two local times) of density trends at each altitude layer. We take into account variations due to a linear trend and the 11-year solar cycle using linear regression techniques. Because we do not see significant differences among the four trends, we combine them to provide a single vertical profile of trend slopes. We find a negative density trend of roughly −5%/decade at every altitude. This is in reasonable agreement with inferences from settling rate of the upper atmosphere. In the 100–110-km altitude, we found an exceptionally high density decline of about −12%/decade. This peak may be the first observational evidence for strong cooling due to water vapor and ozone near 110 km, which was first identified in a numerical simulation by Akmaev et al. (2006, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jastp.2006.03.008). Further observations and numerical simulations with suitable input parameters are needed to establish this feature., 地球温暖化に伴う超高層大気の収縮をX線天文衛星で解明 --逆転の発想!捨てられた天体観測データを大気観測に転用--. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-02-24.
- Published
- 2023