Global pattern of trends in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere: Recent progress

The global pattern of long-term trends and changes in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere has been presented by Laštovička et al. [2006a. Global change in the upper atmosphere. Science 314 (5803), 1253–1254]. Trends in the mesospheric temperature, electron concentration in the lower ionosphere, electron concentration and height of its maximum in the E-region, electron concentration in the F1-region maximum, thermospheric neutral density and F-region ion temperature qualitatively agree with consequences of the enhanced greenhouse effect and form a consistent pattern of global change in the upper atmosphere. Three groups of parameters were identified as not-fitting this global pattern, the F2-region ionosphere, mesospheric water vapour, and the mesosphere/upper thermosphere dynamics. The paper reports progress in development of the global pattern of trends with emphasis to these three open problems. There are several other factors contributing to long-term trends, namely the stratospheric ozone depletion, mesospheric water vapour concentration changes, long-term changes of geomagnetic activity and of the Earth's magnetic field.