Heating Events in the Polar Ionosphere-Thermosphere During the IPY

Details Heating Events in the Polar Ionosphere-Thermosphere During the IPY Heating Events in the Polar Ionosphere-Thermosphere During the IPY

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufmsa32a..05s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #SA32A-05

Physics

2400 Ionosphere (6929), 2431 Ionosphere/Magnetosphere Interactions (2736), 2467 Plasma Temperature And Density, 2475 Polar Cap Ionosphere, 2736 Magnetosphere/Ionosphere Interactions (2431)

Scientific paper

The first 12 months of the IPY campaign occurred during solar minimum conditions. These conditions were not geomagnetically quiet. During the year solar coronal holes produced fast solar wind streams that led to magnetospheric activity. Indications of this activity are found in the planetary geomagnetic activity index, Kp, which has recurrent multi-day periods of Kp values exceeding 3. The nature of these magnetospheric events is under extensive study since they are not viewed as geomagnetic storms or classical substorms. However, the magnetosphere is coupled to the high latitude ionosphere and hence, energy is expected to be deposited in the ionosphere-thermosphere (I-T) system during these events. Where and how much energy are outstanding questions. During this IPY period two incoherent scatter radars (ISR) operated in the polar cap and auroral oval. Both ISRs measured the local altitude profiles electron density, ion temperature, electron temperature, and line-of- sight velocity along their respective magnetic field line. The measurements have a cadence of at least 10 minutes and the ISRs have over 70 percent coverage during the first IPY year. The EISCAT Svalbard Radar (ESR) operated in the polar cap region at Longyearbyne, Svalbard and the NSF Poker Flat ISR (PFISR) operated in the auroral region at Poker Flat, Alaska. At both locations the observed ion temperature shows strong heating correlations with the occurrence of enhanced Kp events. The quiet time solar minimum temperatures at 300 km are observed to range from 800 to 900 K in both the auroral and polar cap regions. During the heating events these temperatures, at both locations, increase. The increase ranges from 50 to 200 K. These observations are presented and discussed in the context of the sustained I-T heating events and their source characteristics. The multiple day sustained heating events are quite different from a few hour substorm heating event or the dynamic fluctuations observed during storm heating.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Heating Events in the Polar Ionosphere-Thermosphere During the IPY does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Heating Events in the Polar Ionosphere-Thermosphere During the IPY, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Heating Events in the Polar Ionosphere-Thermosphere During the IPY will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1244469