Solar cycle response of CO2 over the austral winter mesosphere and lower thermosphere region

This work uses Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry CO2 data from 2002 to 2015 and Specified Dynamics-Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (SD-WACCM) outputs from 1979 to 2014 to show, for the first time, the solar cycle response of CO2 in the Austral winter mesosphere and lower thermosphere region. Both Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry and SD-WACCM show that CO2 experiences a decrease during solar maximum throughout the Austral winter mesosphere and lower thermosphere region.

This work highlights the regions where CO2 experiences its strongest and weakest solar cycle responses as modeled by SD-WACCM. The region with the strongest solar cycle response experiences around 5% reduction in CO2 between solar maximum and solar minimum. The region with weakest solar cycle response experiences less than 1% reduction in CO2 between solar maximum and solar minimum.