The longitudinal and storm-time variations of the equatorial ionospheric plasma density and velocity over a solar cycle

Details The longitudinal and storm-time variations of the equatorial ionospheric plasma density and velocity over a solar cycle The longitudinal and storm-time variations of the equatorial ionospheric plasma density and velocity over a solar cycle

Dec 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008agufmsa21a1528r&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2008, abstract #SA21A-1528

Physics

2411 Electric Fields (2712), 2415 Equatorial Ionosphere, 2435 Ionospheric Disturbances, 2784 Solar Wind/Magnetosphere Interactions, 2788 Magnetic Storms And Substorms (7954)

Scientific paper

We have made a statistical analysis of the equatorial ionospheric plasma density and ion drift velocity measured by the DMSP satellite in the dusk sector over the last solar cycle (1996-2007). Our analysis focuses on two issues: the longitudinal variations and the effect of magnetic storms. It is found that the plasma density and velocity show a longitudinal structure with multiple wave numbers. The wavenumber varies from two in the northern winter, to three in the northern summer, and to four in the equinox months. The amplitude of the longitudinal structures increases with the solar activity, and the perturbation of the horizontal velocity is nearly two times the vertical velocity. Magnetic storms cause very strong penetration electric fields in the equatorial ionosphere. The penetration electric fields last for 8-10 hours without effective shielding when the magnetic storm activity is strengthening during continuous southward interplanetary magnetic field, and the magnitude of the penetration electric field is approximately proportional to the interplanetary electric field with a relatively constant efficiency over the entire interval. It implies that the interplanetary electric field is linearly coupled with the dusk equatorial ionosphere during the entire main phase of intense magnetic storms. The long-lasting penetration electric field causes significant redistribution of the ionospheric plasma. The result of this study is extremely important for understanding the storm-time equatorial ionospheric electrodynamics and for improving the capability of predicting the penetration electric fields and ionospheric disturbances using the upstream solar wind as input.

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