Seasonal Characteristics of Mesospheric Plasma and Their Transitions

The main seasonal features of the middle atmosphere are arising from the different dynamical basic states in winter and summer. The development of the two controversial circulation systems and the also different peculiarities of transition between them in spring and autumn create the completely dominant seasonal variations in strato- and mesosphere. Even in the plasma structures of the mesospheric D-region the seasonal variation is towering above the amplitudes of extraterrestrial influences. From standard ionospheric sounding, significant seasonal D- and E-region effects, adhering to equally significant structure changes in the neutral gas in the height region from 20 to 100 km were discovered. Results about such typical seasonal features are summarized.