Impact of GOLD retrieved thermospheric temperatures on a Whole Atmosphere Data Assimilation Model

The lower atmospheric and GOLD L2 temperature (T-disk) are assimilated in the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with thermosphere-ionosphere eXtension using Data Assimilation Research Testbed.

It is found that inclusion of the GOLD T-disk improves the forecast root mean square error (RMSE) and bias by 5% and 71%. When compared to lower atmosphere only assimilation, the improvements in RMSE and bias are 20% and 94%. An investigation of the global diurnal westward-propagating wavenumber 1 (DW1) and local diurnal tidal characteristics shows that inclusion of the GOLD temperatures improves the DW1 by about 8% and diurnal tide by more than 17%.