Data-driven modeling of atomic oxygen airglow over a period of three
solar cycles
Abstract
The Earth’s upper atmosphere is a dynamic environment that is
continuously affected by space weather from above and atmospheric
processes from below. An effective way to observe this interface region
is the monitoring of airglow. Since the 1950s, airglow emissions have
been systematically measured by ground-based photometers in specific
wavelength bands during the nighttime. The availability of the
calibrated data from over 30 years of photometric airglow measurements
at Abastumani in Georgia (41.75 N, 42.82 E), at wavelengths of 557.7 nm
and 630.0 nm, enable us to investigate if a data-driven model based on
advanced machine learning techniques can be successfully employed for
modeling airglow intensities. A regression task was performed using the
time series of space weather indices and thermosphere-ionosphere
parameters. We have found that the developed data-driven model has good
consistency with the commonly used GLOW airglow model and also captures
airglow variations caused by cycles of solar activity and changes of the
seasons. This enables us to visualize the green and red airglow
variations over a period of three solar cycles with a one-hour time
resolution.