Altitude variation of the plasmapause signature in the main ionospheric trough

Details Altitude variation of the plasmapause signature in the main ionospheric trough Altitude variation of the plasmapause signature in the main ionospheric trough

Nov 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009jastp..71.1669g&link_type=abstract

Journal of Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, Volume 71, Issue 16, p. 1669-1676.

Physics

1

Plasmapause, Ionosphere, Midlatitude, Trough

Scientific paper

The projection of the plasmapause magnetic-field lines to low altitudes, where the light-ion chemistry is dominated by O+, tends to occur near the minimum electron density in the main (midlatitude) electron density trough at night. With increasing altitude in the trough, where H+ emerges as the dominant ion on the low-latitude boundary, we have found cases where the plasmapause field lines are located on the sharp low-latitude side of the trough as expected if this topside ionosphere H+ distribution varies in step with the plasmapause gradient in the distant plasmasphere. These conclusions are based on near-equatorial crossings of the plasmapause (corresponding to the steep gradient in the dominant species H+) by the Explorer-45 satellite as determined from electric-field measurements by Maynard and Cauffman in the early 1970s and ISIS-2 ionospheric topside-sounder measurements. The former data have now been converted to digital form and made available at http://nssdcftp.gsfc.nasa.gov. The latter provide samples of nearly coincident observations of ionospheric main trough crossings near the same magnetic-field lines of the Explorer 45-determined equatorial plasmapause. The ISIS-2 vertical electron density profiles are used to infer where the F-region transitions from an O+ to a H+ dominated plasma through the main trough boundaries.

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