Assessment of the Global Mapping of the Mesopause Region Temperature by Atmospheric Wave Experiment (AWE) on Board the International Space Station (ISS)

Abstract Temperature in the upper atmosphere is one of the critical parameters that is closely associated with the in situ chemistry and neutral dynamics, especially the atmospheric waves with various scales, such as tide and gravity waves. To study the small‐scale wave activities in the mesopause region, the Atmospheric Waves Experiment (AWE) was launched and attached onto the International Space Station (ISS) in November 2023. Since then, it has been providing high resolution horizontal global temperature mapping of the mesopause region by deducing the layer‐averaged rotational temperature of the hydroxyl (OH) layer, centered near 87 km altitude. In this study, we are evaluating the AWE measured temperatures with those obtained by the TIMED/SABER instrument, through building several customized weighting functions for the SABER temperature profiles. The preferred algorithm utilizes the simultaneous SABER observation of the OH layer to establish the customized weighting function of the SABER temperatures. Overall, with 13,122 overlapping samples, the mean temperature difference is less than 1 K with a standard deviation of ∼5 K, demonstrating consistent high accuracy of AWE temperature measurements. In addition, using the ground‐based Na LiDAR and an Advanced Mesospheric Temperature Mapper (AMTM), operating at Utah State University (USU) and Bear Lake Observatory (BLO), respectively, the AWE measured temperatures are further validated during the AWE overpasses.