TY - JOUR
T1 - Thermospheric Neutral Wind Measurements and Investigations across the African Region—A Review
AU - Okoh, Daniel
AU - Bounhir, Aziza
AU - Habarulema, John Bosco
AU - Rabiu, Babatunde
AU - Katamzi-Joseph, Zama
AU - Ojo, Taiwo
AU - Wu, Qian
AU - Makela, Jonathan J.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors appreciate the institutions hosting the FPI in Africa, namely: the Centre for Atmospheric Research (Nigeria); the South African Astronomical Observatory (South Africa); Oukaimeden Observatory (Morocco); Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia); Korhogo Observatory (Ivory Coast). We also appreciate the international partners that make the FPI available in Africa: Qian Wu of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), USA through National Science Foundation (NSF) grant AGS-2120511; Jonathan Makela of the University of Illinois UrbanaChampaign, USA through NSF grants; Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP), Boston college, USA; CNET/SPI at Lannion. The authors appreciate the Atmosphere journal for offering to pay the APC for this article.
Funding Information:
Acknowledgments: The authors appreciate the institutions hosting the FPI in Africa, namely: the Centre for Atmospheric Research (Nigeria); the South African Astronomical Observatory (South Africa); Oukaimeden Observatory (Morocco); Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia); Korhogo Observatory (Ivory Coast). We also appreciate the international partners that make the FPI available in Africa: Qian Wu of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), USA through National Science Foundation (NSF) grant AGS-2120511; Jonathan Makela of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, USA through NSF grants; Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), Defense University Research Instrumentation Program (DURIP), Boston college, USA; CNET/SPI at Lannion. The authors appreciate the Atmosphere journal for offering to pay the APC for this article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/6
Y1 - 2022/6
N2 - This paper briefly reviews studies of thermospheric neutral wind dynamics over the African region. The literature includes a review of the observations of neutral winds over five African locations using the Fabry–Perot Interferometer (FPI), and the comparison between the FPI observations and predictions of the horizontal wind model (HWM-14). So far, there are reports of FPI thermospheric wind measurements in South Africa and Morocco representing the mid-latitude regions in the southern and northern hemispheres, respectively. Within the low latitudes, FPI instruments are installed in the Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. For the literature reviewed, the years covered in the FPI data are 2018–2019 (South Africa), 2016–2017 (Nigeria), 2015–2016 (Ethiopia), 2013–2016 (Morocco), and 1994–1995 (Ivory Coast). Overall, the HWM-14 reproduces the climatological behavior of the meridional and zonal winds, with varying levels of fidelity for the different regions. The HWM-14 is more accurate in the stations located in the northern hemisphere of the African region; a result attributed to the presence of data during the development of this empirical model.
AB - This paper briefly reviews studies of thermospheric neutral wind dynamics over the African region. The literature includes a review of the observations of neutral winds over five African locations using the Fabry–Perot Interferometer (FPI), and the comparison between the FPI observations and predictions of the horizontal wind model (HWM-14). So far, there are reports of FPI thermospheric wind measurements in South Africa and Morocco representing the mid-latitude regions in the southern and northern hemispheres, respectively. Within the low latitudes, FPI instruments are installed in the Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, and Nigeria. For the literature reviewed, the years covered in the FPI data are 2018–2019 (South Africa), 2016–2017 (Nigeria), 2015–2016 (Ethiopia), 2013–2016 (Morocco), and 1994–1995 (Ivory Coast). Overall, the HWM-14 reproduces the climatological behavior of the meridional and zonal winds, with varying levels of fidelity for the different regions. The HWM-14 is more accurate in the stations located in the northern hemisphere of the African region; a result attributed to the presence of data during the development of this empirical model.
KW - Fabry–Perot Interferometer
KW - FPI
KW - HWM
KW - zonal
KW - meridional
KW - thermosphere
KW - neutral wind
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85131557834&partnerID=8YFLogxK
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U2 - 10.3390/atmos13060863
DO - 10.3390/atmos13060863
M3 - Review article
SN - 2073-4433
VL - 13
JO - Atmosphere
JF - Atmosphere
IS - 6
M1 - 863
ER -