A survey of semidiurnal tides in the middle thermosphere from ICON

Atmospheric tides are known to be important at thermospheric altitudes, where they can impact the energetics and dynamics of the neutral atmosphere, and strongly impact the ionosphere. At thermospheric altitudes, the tides present are believed to be a mix of waves propagating upward from lower regions of the atmosphere, and waves generated in situ. Much of our knowledge of tides at these altitudes comes from observations in the MLT region, the upper thermosphere, and physics-based models that provide insight in the middle thermosphere. ICON-MIGHTI offers one of the possible ways to identify tides in the middle thermosphere, between the MLT and upper thermosphere altitudes. Recently, Forbes et al., [2022] presented a method to quantify semidiurnal tides in the middle thermosphere with ICON-MIGHTI. Here we extend that study to the full ~3 years of MIGHTI observations, and compare the tides seen with those in the TIEGCM model, when driven at its lower boundary with ICON semidiurnal tides.