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The Influence of the Several Very Large Solar Proton Events in Years 2000-2003 on the Neutral Middle AtmosphereSolar proton events (SPEs) are known to have caused changes in constituents in the Earth's neutral middle atmosphere. The highly energetic protons produce ionizations, excitations, dissociations, and dissociative ionizations of the background constituents, which lead to the production of HOx (H, OH, HO2) and NOy (N, NO, NO2, NO3, N2O5, HNO3, HO2NO2, ClONO2, BrONO2). The HOx increases lead to short-lived ozone decreases in the mesosphere and upper stratosphere due to the short lifetimes of the HOx constituents. The NOy increases lead to long-lived stratospheric ozone changes because of the long lifetime of the NOy family in this region. The past four years, 2000-2003, have been replete with SPEs and huge fluxes of high energy protons occurred in July and November 2000, September and November 2001, April 2002, and October 2003. Smaller, but still substantial, proton fluxes impacted the Earth during other months from year 2000 to 2003. The Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Two-dimensional (2D) Model was used in computing the influence of the SPEs. The impact of these extremely large SPEs was calculated to be especially large in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere. The results of the GSFC 2D Model will be shown along with comparisons to the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) Halogen Occultation Experiment (HALOE) and Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet 2 (SBUV/2) instruments.
Document ID
20040105621
Acquisition Source
Headquarters
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Jackman, Charles H.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Sinnhuber, Miriam
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Anderson, John
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
McPeters, Richard D.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
FLeming, Eric L.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Russell, James M.
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2004
Subject Category
Geophysics
Meeting Information
Meeting: COSPAR Meeting
Location: Paris
Country: France
Start Date: July 18, 2004
End Date: July 25, 2004
Sponsors: Committee on Space Research
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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