Zonal and meridional wind components derived from intercosmos-19 hmF2 measurements Original Research Article

The technique for the derivation of the meridional, V, and zonal, U, components of neutral wind from the longitudinal variations of vertical plasma drift, W, is developed. (Longitudinal variations of W were calculated by means of servo-model from Intercosmos-19 hmF2 data carefully selected for the ±40° invariant and geographical latitudes in the Northern and Southern hemispheres.) The technique is based on expansion of longitudinal variations of W, V, U and parameters of the geomagnetic field into finite Fourier series and on solution of the obtained equations set. The best solution of this problem is obtained by means of the Tikhonov regularization method. The most precise solution is derived for average value of meridional wind, the least precise one - for the longitudinal variations of zonal wind. The comparison with HWM and MWM wind models is carried out. The contributions of the different factors in the longitudinal variations of hmF2 are estimated.