Infrared radiative cooling by nitric oxide (NO) and carbon dioxide (CO₂) modulates the thermosphere's density and thermal response to geomagnetic storms. Satellite tracking and collision avoidance planning require accurate density forecasts during these events. Over the past several years, failed density forecasts have been tied to the onset of rapid and significant cooling due to production of NO and its associated radiative cooling via emission of infrared radiation at 5.3 μm. These results have been diagnosed, after the fact, through analyses of measurements of infrared cooling made by the Sounding of the Atmosphere using Broadband Emission Radiometry instrument now in orbit over 16 years on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics satellite. Radiative cooling rates for NO and CO₂ have been further shown to be directly correlated with composition and exospheric temperature changes during geomagnetic storms. These results strongly suggest that a network of smallsats observing the infrared radiative cooling of the thermosphere could serve as space weather sentinels. These sentinels would observe and provide radiative cooling rate data in real time to generate nowcasts of density and aerodynamic drag on space vehicles. Currently, radiative cooling is not directly considered in operational space weather forecast models. In addition, recent research has shown that different geomagnetic storm types generate substantially different infrared radiative response, and hence, substantially different thermospheric density response. The ability to identify these storms, and to measure and predict the Earth's response to them, should enable substantial improvement in thermospheric density forecasts.

中文翻译：

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用于测量热层中红外冷却的天基哨兵，用于空间天气临近预报和预报。

一氧化氮 (NO) 和二氧化碳 (CO ₂ ) 的红外辐射冷却可调节热层的密度和对地磁风暴的热响应。卫星跟踪和防撞规划需要在这些事件期间进行准确的密度预测。在过去的几年中，失败的密度预测与由于 NO 的产生以及通过发射 5.3 μm 红外辐射而产生的相关辐射冷却而导致的快速和显着冷却的开始有关。这些结果是事后通过使用宽带发射辐射测量仪器对大气层探测进行的红外冷却测量进行分析而得到诊断的，该仪器现已在轨道上运行超过 16 年，用于美国国家航空航天局热层、电离层、中间层能量学和动力学卫星。_{NO 和CO 2}的辐射冷却速率已被进一步证明与地磁暴期间的成分和外层温度变化直接相关。这些结果强烈表明，观测热层红外辐射冷却的小卫星网络可以充当空间天气哨兵。这些哨兵将实时观察并提供辐射冷却速率数据，以生成航天器密度和空气动力阻力的临近预报。目前，在运行空间天气预报模型中并未直接考虑辐射冷却。此外，最近的研究表明，不同的地磁风暴类型产生显着不同的红外辐射响应，因此产生显着不同的热层密度响应。识别这些风暴以及测量和预测地球对它们的反应的能力应该能够显着改善热层密度的预测。