Secular variations of OH nightglow emission and of the OH intensity-weighted temperature induced by gravity–wave forcing in the MLT region Original Research Article

Secular variations of OH airglow (8,3) band and of the intensity-weighted temperature induced by a gravity wave packet at three latitudes in the northern hemisphere in the Mesosphere/Lower Thermosphere region are investigated using a 2-D, time-dependent, fully nonlinear OH chemistry–dynamics model. A net-cycled average survives due to wave transience and dissipation. The integrated OH (8,3) volume emission rates show a 20 percent increase induced by the wave packet. The corresponding intensity-weighted temperature shows an initial increase up to 2 percent then a gradual decrease for the remainder of the simulation time by the same wave packet. These secular variations could be mistaken as long-period or short-period waves in the airglow observations. Therefore, care must be taken when analyzing the data from observations.