This project combined newly-available middle atmosphere observations from the EISCAT 3D ionospheric radar with the Specified Dynamics version of the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model (WACCM) with D-region ionic chemistry to quantify the drivers and variability of the mesosphere.

This work provided a first step towards improving predictability of the mesosphere at sub-seasonal to decadal timescales. The mesosphere influences, and is influenced by, in-situ and external effects such as atmospheric waves and tides (upward) and space weather effects (downward); and is strongly coupled to the lower edge of the ionosphere and the other atmospheric regions. A sound scientific understanding of the drivers of variability in the mesosphere is therefore needed in order to advance modelling of the whole atmosphere as a coupled system.

This project was led by British Antarctic Survey (BAS) scientists under Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) project MesoS2D (grant reference: NE/V018426/1).