Gravity Wave Study in the MLT using ICON-MIGHTI Temperature and Wind Observations

Atmospheric gravity waves have important roles in driving atmospheric coupling processes from the lower atmosphere to the mesosphere, thermosphere, and ionosphere. NASA’s Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) satellite was launched on 10 October 2019 and has been observing atmospheric temperatures and winds in the latitude range of 10S-40N. Michelson Interferometer for Global High-resolution Thermospheric Imaging (MIGHTI) is one of the instruments on ICON measuring temperatures and winds. Using both temperature and wind measurements from ICON-MIGHTI observations, small-scale perturbations (< wavenumber 6) are extracted and analyzed in the altitude range of 90-105 km and are considered to be gravity waves in this work. Obtained gravity waves will be compared to other satellite observations including TIMED/SABER.