Polar cap observations of thermospheric winds and temperatures at Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland

An agreement of averaged temperatures with mass spectrometer incoherent scatter radar looked reasonable for several nights, but for many nights there are differences: (1) midnight period of cooling, and (2) temperature increases associated with overhead crossings of the auroral belt. The observed rise of the temperature before dawn in conjunction with the high 6300A intensities suggests a connection between the two effects: soft particle precipitation most likely candidate but frictional heating perhaps also a possibility. A comparison with the thermospheric general circulation model calculations also needed. The technique for formulating neutral wind vectors performs well in most cases. The observed patterns show evidence for abatement in the midnight sector in the meridional wind component at the separatix between the two cells with a frequency of the order of 20 to 25%, also observed in radar observations at Sondre Stromfjord. The observed patterns for magnetically quiet conditions show flow characteristic of the auroral belt, westward in evening followed by the midnight surge. The observed patterns for active conditions show dominance either by the evening cell or the morning cell, but most often the former.