Three-dimensional ionospheric electron density structure of the Weddell Sea Anomaly

This paper provides the first three-dimensional description of the ionospheric density structure of the Weddell Sea Anomaly (WSA). The WSA is characterized by a nighttime ionospheric density greater than that in daytime in the Weddell Sea region around the Antarctic Peninsula during the southern hemisphere summer. It was first observed by ground-based ionosondes located in the Antarctica back in the 1950s and was further investigated by two-dimensional maps over the oceans using TEC measurements collected by the TOPEX/Poseidon recently. Although these TEC maps have provided two-dimensional views for tracking the time-evolution and spatial coverage of the WSA, the vertical distribution of this peculiar feature is still unavailable. With the vertical ionospheric density profiles observed by the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC, three-dimensional density structure of the WSA is presented here for the first time. Meanwhile, a similar WSA signature is observed in the northern and eastern hemisphere during June solstice by both the GPS-TEC and the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC electron density observations. From the observed altitudinal structure of the WSA during 1800 - 2400 LT and the similar feature occurred in the opposite hemisphere suggest that the southward offset of the magnetic equator with respect to the geographic equator plays a major role for the WSA formation.

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An edited version of this paper was published by AGU. Copyright 2009 American Geophysical Union.


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Author Lin, C.
Liu, J.
Cheng, C.
Chen, C.
Liu, C.
Wang, Wenbin
Burns, Alan
Lei, J.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2009-02-20T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-17T15:32:07.456207
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:15373
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Lin, C., Liu, J., Cheng, C., Chen, C., Liu, C., Wang, Wenbin, Burns, Alan, Lei, J.. (2009). Three-dimensional ionospheric electron density structure of the Weddell Sea Anomaly. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d76t0np3. Accessed 01 August 2025.

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