Physics
Scientific paper
Dec 2009
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmsa31a1401y&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #SA31A-1401
Physics
[2415] Ionosphere / Equatorial Ionosphere, [2439] Ionosphere / Ionospheric Irregularities, [6929] Radio Science / Ionospheric Physics, [6934] Radio Science / Ionospheric Propagation
Scientific paper
The data of ionospheric electron density and S4 scintillation index from the COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3 GPS occultation observations during 2007-2008 are used to study the morphology of equatorial F-region irregularity (EFI). The six LEO constellating satellites of COSMIC provide daily global measurements of the ionosphere at altitudes below ~800 km. The large volume of radio sensing data enables the correlative study of electron density depletion and strong amplitude scintillation, thus allows the global and altitudinal irregularity distributions to be examined. Under solar minimum and geomagnetic quiet conditions, post sunset EFI/scintillation events are found to concentrate in the South Atlantic magnetic Anomaly (SAA) longitude sector during the northern winter months (D-months), but absent from the same longitude sector during the opposite season (J-months). The D-months’ average pattern of EFI in the SAA longitude sector reveals that most of irregularities occurred in the bottom side F-region (200~350 km altitudes) and at the low magnetic latitudes adjacent to the locations of the maximum post-sunset Nmax and Hmax. The association of EFI with high values of Nmax and Hmax is consistent with the observations that early post sunset irregularities are generated in the region where plasma upward drifts have been greatly enhanced. During the December solstice, the E-region sunset terminator in the SAA longitude sector is nearly parallel to the magnetic field direction (westward declination) at equatorial latitudes, where density depletion and strong scintillation were observed. These observations confirm the published reports that the sunset equatorial electrodynamics plays a key role in controlling the seasonal and longitudinal occurrence of the quiet time equatorial F-region irregularities.
Ko Changhyun
Yeh Henry
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