The Mid-latitude All-sky-imaging Network for Geophysical Observations (MANGO) employs a combination of two powerful optical techniques used to observe the dynamics of Earth’s upper atmosphere: wide-field imaging and high-resolution spectral interferometry. Both techniques observe the naturally occurring airglow emissions produced in the upper atmosphere at 630.0- and 557.7-nm wavelengths. Instruments are deployed to sites across the continental United States, providing the capability to make measurements spanning mid to sub-auroral latitudes. The current instrument suite in MANGO has five all-sky imagers observing the 630.0-nm emission (integrated between ~250-400 km altitude), four all-sky imagers observing the 557.7-nm emission (integrated between ~97-100 km altitude), and three Fabry-Perot interferometers measuring neutral winds and temperature using both these wavelengths. The deployment of additional imagers is planned. The network makes unprecedented observations of the nighttime thermosphere-ionosphere dynamics with the expanded field-of-view provided by the distributed network of instruments. This paper describes the network, the instruments, the data products, and first results from this effort.

Joule heating deposits a significant amount of energy into the high-latitude ionosphere and is an important factor in many magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere coupling processes. We consider the relationship between localized temperature enhancements in polar cap measured with the Resolute Bay Incoherent Scatter Radar-North (RISR-N) and the orientation of the IMF. Based on analysis of 10 years of data, RISR-N most commonly observes ion heating in the noon sector under northwards IMF Bz. We interpret heating events in that sector as being primarily driven by sunwards plasma convection associated with lobe reconnection. We attempt to model two of the observed temperature enhancements with a data-driven first principles model of ionospheric plasma transport and dynamics, but fail to fully reproduce the ion temperature enhancements. However, evaluating the ion energy equation using the locally measured ion velocities reproduces the observed ion temperature enhancements. This result indicates that current techniques for estimating global plasma convection pattern are not adequately capturing mesoscale flows in the polar cap, and this can result in underestimation of the energy deposition into the ionosphere and thermosphere.