MEASUREMENTS OF THE DYNAMICS OF THE HIGH-LATITUDE THERMOSPHERE.

In this paper, the authors review the progress made in the last few years using the Dynamics Explorer-2 neutral wind observations in elucidating the nature of the coupling between the magnetosphere and the thermosphere via the ionosphere. They then refer to recent studies that have shown not only the basic dependency of the high-latitude neutral dynamics on magnetospheric forcing but also the complexity of the ion-neutral coupling mechanisms which are highly (and nonlinearly) dependent on the variable ion-neutral and neutral-ion collision frequencies.