Abstract
We examine characteristics of the seasonal variation of thermospheric
composition using column number density ratio
∑O/N2 observed by the NASA Global Observations of
Limb and Disk (GOLD) mission from low-mid to mid-high latitudes. We
found that the ∑O/N2 seasonal variation is
hemispherically asymmetric: in the southern hemisphere, it exhibits the
well-known annual and seminal pattern, with highs near the equinoxes,
and primary and secondary lows near the solstices. In the northern
hemisphere, it is dominated by an annual variation, with a minor
semiannual component with the highs shifting towards the wintertime. We
also found that the durations of the December and June solstice seasons
in terms of ∑O/N2 are highly variable with
longitude. Our hypothesis is that ion-neutral collisional heating in the
equatorial ionization anomaly region, ion drag, and auroral Joule
heating play substantial roles in this longitudinal dependency. Finally,
the rate of change in ∑O/N2 from one solstice
season to the other is dependent on latitude, with more dramatic changes
at higher latitudes.