An Index Description of the General Characteristics of Thermospheric Density Based on the Two-Line-Element Data Sets and the Spectral Whitening Method

Abstract

The thermospheric density and its variations are crucial to aerospace activities as well as space weather research and operation. However, due to the difficulties in observing the thermosphere, there has been a lack of effective descriptions for the general characteristics of thermospheric density. In this paper, the Two-Line-Element data sets (TLEs) from multi-target low Earth orbit satellites are used to derive a proxy of the daily average atmospheric density in the thermospheric shell located in the vicinity of LEOs' orbital altitude. It captures the overall characteristics of the thermosphere and exhibits good correlations (∼0.9) with modeled and observed thermospheric density. By applying the spectral whitening method to this proxy, a new index (Formula presented.) is derived to describe non-periodic perturbation of the density where the specific satellite passed by. The fact that the (Formula presented.) obtained from different satellites within the same thermospheric shell presents significant consistency to each other means that the new index is a good indicator for the overall feature of the variations of thermospheric density, and it is possible to define a unified regional index (Formula presented.) to describe density disturbances for the thermospheric shell where these satellites fly through. Moreover, the (Formula presented.) at different altitudes also present good consistency suggesting the possibility of defining a global index (Formula presented.), capable of describing the density variation of the entire thermosphere.