Climatologies of nighttime thermospheric winds and temperatures from Fabry‐Perot interferometer measurements: From solar minimum to solar maximum

We present a climatology of quiet time thermospheric winds and temperatures estimated from high‐resolution Fabry‐Perot interferometer measurements of the 630.0 nm airglow emission spectral line shape. Three locations are examined in this long‐term study: northeastern Brazil (August 2009 to August 2014), a midlatitude site in North Carolina, USA (June 2011 to December 2014), and a midlatitude site in Morocco (November 2013 to December 2014). We discuss the day‐to‐day, seasonal, and solar cycle trends and variations of thermospheric meridional winds, zonal winds, neutral temperatures, and for the first time vertical winds. Observations made from solar minimum to solar maximum (with F 10.7 values ranging from ∼70 to ∼159 solar flux units) confirm that neutral temperatures have a strong solar cycle dependence. However, this data set shows that the neutral winds are more closely tied to the seasonal variation, rather than the solar cycle. We also present comparisons between the two midlatitude sites and include neutral wind comparisons to the updated Horizontal Wind Model 14.