# Thermospheric Neutral Wind Measurements and Investigations across the African Region--A Review
## 4 Measurements of Zonal Wind Magnitudes and Directions
This westward motion was also recorded in a month close to winter (when westward winds are usually not recorded) in the station. Figure 5: Zonal winds in Morocco for January 2014 to February 2016. The blue plots represent the FPI measurements, while the green plots represent corresponding HWM-14 predictions. The vertical error bars indicate the standard deviations of the observations. Adapted with permission from Ref. [23]. 2017, [PERSON] et al. In mid-latitude South Africa, [PERSON] et al. (2022) [13] observed that there were westward winds during the early morning hours in all of the months investigated. The wind directions typically start with eastward; the magnitudes increase in that direction and peak often around midnight, then decrease thereafter until they become westward in the hours before sunrise. This is the only station in the region where westward directed winds were consistently recorded throughout the months investigated. This is because the South African station is nearer to the geomagnetic pole, which can be more influenced by the high-latitude forcing. Morocco, which has a lower magnetic latitude, is less affected by the sub-auroral process. In Morocco, the winds rarely turn westward during winter (the eastward speeds keep decreasing towards zero magnitude), but during summer (May-July), they turn westward between the hours of 01:00 and 03:00 LT. In South Africa, the winds also turn westward between the hours of 01:00 and 03:00 LT during summer (November-January). However, during the South African winter (May-July), the time of the eastward-to-westward switch is delayed till around 06:00 LT, portraying a weakened effect of the westward wind during this season. In Morocco, the overall peak magnitude of the eastward wind is \(\sim\)100 m/s, while in South Africa, the value is \(\sim\)150 m/s. In both stations, the peak eastward magnitudes are observed during the winter months; the peaks of the eastward winds are greater during winter than during summer. Conversely, in the two stations, the peak westward wind magnitudes are observed during the summer months; the peaks of the westward winds are greater during summer than during winter. In Morocco, the value is \(\sim\)50 m/s [17], while in  
Figure 6: Zonal winds in South Africa for February 2018 to January 2019. The red and blue plots represent the FPI measurements looking in the North and South directions, respectively, while the green plots represent corresponding HWM-14 predictions. The vertical error bars indicate the standard deviations of the observations. Adapted with permission from Ref. [13]. 2022, [PERSON] et al. South Africa, the value is \(\sim\)100 m/s [13]. Both values are recorded towards local daybreak. The results suggest that the peaks of the wind amplitudes are consistently greater in South Africa than in Morocco. This is perhaps due to increased ion-neutral drag caused by the equatorial ionization anomaly, as Morocco is closer to the geomagnetic equator [31]. It was observed that the winds grew stronger with increasing geomagnetic latitude [16]. Table 1 contains a summary of the information on the maximum meridional and zonal wind speeds reported at each of the stations. It is important to emphasize that the values reported in Table 1 are indicative of the mean values, typically averaged monthly, and do not represent the maximum of instantaneous values. The maximum of instantaneous wind measurements is expected to be greater than the maximum of monthly averaged values. For example, [PERSON] et al. (2021) [7] indicated that the zonal wind speeds in Nigeria could reach \(\sim\)300 m/s, which exceeds the 160 m/s monthly averaged maximum given in Table 1.