Articles | Volume 18, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-921-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-921-2025
Research article
 | 
25 Feb 2025
Research article |  | 25 Feb 2025

Remote sensing of lower-middle-thermosphere temperatures using the N2 Lyman–Birge–Hopfield (LBH) bands

Richard Eastes, J. Scott Evans, Quan Gan, William McClintock, and Jerry Lumpe

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Cited articles

Ajello, J. M., Evans, J. S., Veibell, V., Malone, C. P., Holsclaw, G. M., Hoskins, A. C., Lee, R. A., McClintock, W. E., Aryal, S., Eastes, R. W., and Schneider, N.: The uv spectrum of the lyman-birge-hopfield band system of N2 induced by cascading from electron impact, J. Geophys. Res.-Space, 125, e2019JA027546, https://doi.org/10.1029/2019JA027546, 2020. 
Aksnes, A., Eastes, R., Budzien, S., and Dymond, K.: Neutral temperatures in the lower thermosphere from N2 Lyman-Birge-Hopfield (LBH) band profiles, Geophys. Res. Lett., 33, L15103, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006GL026255, 2006. 
Aryal, S., Evans, J. S., Ajello, J., Solomon, S., Burns, A., Eastes, R., and McClintock, W.: Constraining the upper level vibrational populations of the N2 lyman-birge-hopfield band system using gold mission's dayglow observations, J. Geophys. Res.-Space, 127, e2021JA029869, https://doi.org/10.1029/2021JA029869, 2022. 
Cantrall, C. and Matsuo, T.: Deriving column-integrated thermospheric temperature with the N2 Lyman–Birge–Hopfield (2,0) band, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 6917–6928, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-6917-2021, 2021. 
Chamberlin, P. C., Eparvier, F. G., Knoer, V., Leise, H., Pankratz, A., Snow, M., Templeman, B., Thiemann, E. M. B., Woodraska, D. L., and Woods, T. N.: The flare irradiance spectral model-version 2 (FISM2), Space Weather, 18, e2020SW002588, https://doi.org/10.1029/2020SW002588, 2020. 
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Short summary
Temperature is essential to understanding the thermosphere. Most temperature measurements have been indirect or had large uncertainties, especially in the lower-middle thermosphere, where data are rarely available. Since October 2018, NASA’s GOLD mission has produced disk images of neutral temperatures near 160 km at locations over the Americas and Atlantic Ocean. This paper discusses both temperature retrieval techniques and issues in interpreting GOLD’s images of thermospheric temperatures.
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