The investigator monitors thermospheric atomic oxygen concentration in the thermosphere using ground-based incoherent scatter radar data. As the primary neutral species, atomic oxygen is a fundamental parameter for understanding thermospheric and ionospheric processes. However, no in situ measurements of absolute density have been made for 15 years, and current state-of-the-art understanding of this parameters stems from empirical models incorporating oxygen densities measured by satellites prior to 1982. It is quite possible that empirical models based on this old satellite data do not properly predict the current state of the thermosphere. This database provides the necessary check on the models, and information on whether their predictions are accurate into solar cycles beyond where the data is contained. The ongoing monitoring of thermospheric density has many applications to space weather prediction.
