Summary
A simplified three dimensional, time-dependant model of a small region of Earth's thermosphere is being developed to investigate dynamical processes over spatial scales of less than 100 km. Because hydrostatic equilibrium is not enforced in the model, it is suitable for studying dynamical processes that occur over small spatial and temporal scales, such as wave activity and local upwelling. The model domain currently extends 1000 km zonally, 600 km meridionally and encompasses the 100 to 400 km altitude range with a typical cell size of 20 x 15 x 0.75 km. Thermospheric dynamics over such spatial scales have not been studied comprehensively to date. This is partly due to the inability of most experimental techniques to produce observational data at this resolution, and partly because models with global scope would require prohibitive computational resources to solve the equations on a grid with sub-100km resolution. The current model achieves high spatial resolution at the cost of being restricted to a smaller spatial domain. The model allows us to examine the affects individual terms in the governing equations can have on neutral wind dynamics over spatial ranges of 10's to 100's km. Of specific interest are processes that can generate small scale structures in the neutral winds. Individual wind components, wave activity, vertical upwelling, divergence and vorticity all have interesting responses to such processes.