Zonal winds in the equatorial upper thermosphere: Decomposing the solar flux, geomagnetic activity, and seasonal dependencies

Using 3 years (2002–2004), over 16,400 orbits of measurements from the accelerometer on board the CHAMP satellite, we have studied the climatology of the equatorial zonal wind in the upper thermosphere. Several main features are noticed. The most prominent one is that the solar flux significantly influences both the daytime and nighttime winds....