First Observations of the Ionosphere using the Tiny Ionospheric Photometer

Details First Observations of the Ionosphere using the Tiny Ionospheric Photometer First Observations of the Ionosphere using the Tiny Ionospheric Photometer

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufmsa32a..03c&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #SA32A-03

Other

0310 Airglow And Aurora, 2407 Auroral Ionosphere (2704), 2415 Equatorial Ionosphere, 2443 Midlatitude Ionosphere, 2494 Instruments And Techniques

Scientific paper

The Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) uses the Tiny Ionospheric Photometer (TIP) to characterize the nighttime ionosphere. The TIP is a compact, narrow-band, ultraviolet photometer operating at the 135.6 nm wavelength. This emission is produced by recombination of O+ ions and electrons, which is the natural decay process for the ionosphere. At night, the strength of the emission is proportional to the square of the peak electron density. The principal science mission of TIP is to measure horizontal gradients of ionospheric electron density with sufficient precision to reconstruct high accuracy electron density distributions in the ionosphere, when combined with vertical gradient measurements, provided by GPS occultations. TIP is orders of magnitude more sensitive than its EUV predecessors, such as SSULI, LORAAS, SSUSI, GUVI and IMAGE, and promises to provide remarkable detail on ionospheric structures heretofore unseen by other EUV sensors. Secondary science goals are to map and monitor the global F-region peak electron density, to locate the positions of the Appleton anomalies, to observe mesoscale ionospheric density structures, to map and monitor the global vertical total electron content, and to map and monitor the location of the auroral boundary. We present a review of the first scientific observations made with TIP. Comparisons are made with a variety of other instruments, including GUVI, JASON, and GPS ground-based networks. The comparisons validate the ionospheric observations and demonstrate the level of detail provided by TIP. All six satellites were deployed into a single high inclination, low-earth orbit. With the migration into six longitudinally distributed orbits, TIP promises to provide unprecedented spatial and temporal coverage of the ionosphere, allowing for detailed investigation of individual structures in the broader context of the global, nighttime ionosphere. Additionally, the combination of TIP sensors with COSMIC GPS occultation receivers and tri-band beacons, provides the opportunity to conduct multi-sensor investigations and high resolution imaging of low and midlatitude ionospheric structures.

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