2024 Workshop: Polar Vortex and ITM Connections

Dynamical disturbances associated with the polar vortex have a significant impact on the variability of the ITM system. The polar vortex-induced effects on the ITM are primarily driven by changes in tidal and gravity wave forcing, propagation, and dissipation conditions. Comprehensive knowledge of the different pathways through which the polar vortex influences the ITM has been hindered by observational limitations, especially given the relatively short time scales involved. Ground-based observations are suitable to examine day-to-day variations in the ITM due to polar vortex variability, however, they are limited in their longitudinal coverage. Satellite observations can potentially address this issue, yet they lack sufficient sampling to observe the ITM variability on short-time scales. Moreover, the cross-scale and multi-scale nature of these whole atmosphere interconnections is ubiquitous. These effects are not well quantified or reproduced by whole atmosphere models, and only limited knowledge exists on the impacts of solar and geomagnetic preconditioning on this coupling. Understanding how variability in the polar vortex impacts the ITM system across different spatiotemporal scales is thus a domain of compelling scientific inquiry. Such a domain can only now be studied by synergistically taking advantage of new capabilities from recent space missions (including ICON, GOLD, COSMIC-2, and CubeSats), ground-based observations, and physics-based models.