# Thermospheric Neutral Wind Measurements and Investigations across the African Region--A Review
## 2 Highlights on Reports of Thermospheric Neutral Wind Measurements across Africa
day, seasonal, and solar cycle variations of thermospheric meridional winds, zonal winds, neutral temperatures, and, for the first time, vertical winds. [PERSON] et al. (2017) [23] took the study further by concentrating on measurements from the Morocco FPI. They presented the first multi-year results of the climatology of meridional and zonal winds obtained during the period from January 2014 to February 2016 (648 nights' observations). Their results showed that the wind climatology followed the pattern reported in [PERSON] et al. (2022) [28] and [PERSON] (2017) [29], such that the wind starts with a strong eastward speed during the early evening, and ends with a weak eastward, or even westward, speed towards sunrise. The zonal winds were strongly eastward in the early evenings just after sunset, with speeds of about 50 to 100 m/s decreasing in magnitude, and then reversing directions in the local summer months, as sunrise was approached. The meridional winds were slightly poleward in the early evening during the local winter, and reversed directions around 21:00 LT. During local summer, the meridional winds were predominantly equatorward throughout the nights, reaching a maximum equatorward speeds of \(\sim\)75 m/s. Similar to the work of [PERSON] et al. (2015) [17], they also compared the FPI wind climatology to that of the Horizontal Wind Model (HWM-14), with the aim of validating the model's predictions of the thermospheric wind patterns in the region. Their results showed that the model climatology was mostly similar to that of the FPI. The major difference between the two sources was in their zonal wind values, during local summer; the FPI maximum eastward wind occurred \(\sim\)4 h later than predicted by the HWM-14. Soon after the report of [PERSON] et al. (2017) [23], [PERSON] et al. (2017) [27] reported the first measurements of the FPI in Ethiopia (in the East African region; Geographic: 11.6\({}^{\circ}\) N, 37.4\({}^{\circ}\) E; Geomagnetic: 3.7\({}^{\circ}\) N). The measurements covered a period of six months between November 2015 and April 2016, with 53 nights of useable data. Their results showed that the monthly-averaged zonal winds were predominantly eastward between 19:00 and 21:00 LT, and that the zonal wind magnitudes were mostly within the range of 70 to 90 m/s. In the early evenings, during local winter, the meridional winds were about 30 to 50 m/s in the poleward (northward) direction. Similar to [PERSON] et al. (2017) [23], [PERSON] et al. (2017) [27] compared the FPI observations to predictions of the HWM-14. They noted that the HWM-14 generally predicted the zonal wind observations accurately, except for some over-estimations during winter. [PERSON] et al. (2018) [25] used the measurements from the FPI in Morocco to investigate the ionospheric and thermospheric responses to the geomagnetic storm of 27-28 February 2014. This study represented the first study in which measurements from an FPI in the African region were used to investigate geomagnetic storm effects on the neutral wind. Their results showed that during the storm there was a clear departure of the neutral winds from their seasonal behavior; the meridional wind speeds increased steeply towards the equator, and the zonal wind reversed to westward. Wind-induced Travelling Atmospheric Disturbance (TAD) circulation was dominant, including a trans-equatorial TAD. By making use of an all-sky imager tracking plasma bubbles, they established a correlation between the plasma drift velocities and the zonal winds, making clear the ionosphere/thermosphere coupling during geomagnetic storms. Neutral wind transport was found to dominate over the plasma electrodynamics. [PERSON] et al. (2020) [26] further investigated the geomagnetic activity effect on the thermospheric neutral winds using measurements of the FPI in Morocco. They characterized the neutral wind variability and dependence on the solar cycle, during both quiet and disturbed conditions.