Publications related to the GRACE Missions (no abstracts)

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Thermospheric Density, Composition, and Temperature From GOES–R/SUVI Solar Occultations

Sewell, R. H. A., Thiemann, E. M. B., Lafyatis, J., Hallock, K., Bethge, C., Pilinski, M., Sutton, E. K., Peck, C. L., and Seaton, D. B., 2025. Thermospheric Density, Composition, and Temperature From GOES–R/SUVI Solar Occultations. Space Weather, 23(9):e2024SW004234, doi:10.1029/2024SW004234.

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@ARTICLE{2025SpWea..2304234S,
       author = {{Sewell}, R.~H.~A. and {Thiemann}, E.~M.~B. and {Lafyatis}, J. and {Hallock}, K. and {Bethge}, C. and {Pilinski}, M. and {Sutton}, E.~K. and {Peck}, C.~L. and {Seaton}, D.~B.},
        title = "{Thermospheric Density, Composition, and Temperature From GOES-R/SUVI Solar Occultations}",
      journal = {Space Weather},
     keywords = {thermosphere, neutral density, neutral temperature, occultations, SUVI, GOES, Earth and Planetary Astrophysics},
         year = 2025,
        month = sep,
       volume = {23},
       number = {9},
          eid = {e2024SW004234},
        pages = {e2024SW004234},
     abstract = "{A new data set of atomic oxygen (O) and molecular nitrogen
        (${\mathrm{N}}_{2}$) number density profiles, along with
        thermospheric temperature profiles between 180 and 500 km, has
        been developed. These profiles are derived from solar
        occultation measurements made by the Solar Ultraviolet Imager
        (SUVI) on the GOES-R satellites, using the 17.1, 19.5, and 30.4
        nm channels. Discussed is the novel approach and methods for
        using EUV solar occultation images for measuring the
        thermospheric state. Measurement uncertainties are presented as
        a function of tangent altitude. At 250 km, number density random
        uncertainties are found to be 8\% and 17\% for O and
        ${\mathrm{N}}_{2}$, respectively, and the random uncertainty for
        neutral temperature is 3\%. The impact of effective cross
        section uncertainty on retrieval bias was assessed, revealing
        that the largest effects occur where O and ${\mathrm{N}}_{2}$
        are, respectively, the minor absorber. In contrast, total mass
        density and O/${\mathrm{N}}_{2}$ ratios show substantially lower
        sensitivity, with biases that remain small or nearly constant
        with altitude. Total mass density comparisons with the NRLMSIS
        2.0 model show good agreement at the dusk terminator (average
        difference {\ensuremath{-}}2\%), but larger discrepancies at
        dawn ({\ensuremath{-}}26\%), particularly during low solar
        activity. Density comparisons with the IDEA-GRACE-FO and
        Dragster models show dawn/dusk differences of
        {\ensuremath{-}}24\%/{\ensuremath{-}}2\% and +2\%/+13\%,
        respectively. As this measurement relies only on real-time NOAA
        space weather SUVI images, these density and temperature
        profiles could be produced in real-time, supporting critical
        space weather monitoring and prediction, and helping fill a
        long-standing observational gap in thermospheric temperature and
        density.}",
          doi = {10.1029/2024SW004234},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
       eprint = {2508.10242},
 primaryClass = {astro-ph.EP},
       adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025SpWea..2304234S},
      adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

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