Identification

Title

Can atomic oxygen production explain the ionospheric annual asymmetry?

Abstract

The causes of the ionospheric annual asymmetry, which refers to a larger averaged electron density at geomagnetic conjugate latitudes in December than in June, remain an unresolved problem that still generates considerable interest. The ionospheric annual asymmetry in the peak electron density of the F-2 layer (NmF2) is typically 20-40%, which cannot be explained by the 7% annual asymmetry in photoionization caused by the shorter Sun-Earth distance in December. Mikhailov and Perrone (2011, 2015) suggested that the annual asymmetry in atomic oxygen production due to O-2 dissociation is sufficient to explain the ionospheric annual asymmetry at middle latitudes. In our study, a series of the Global Mean Model (GMM) simulations have been conducted to test this hypothesis. Although O-2 dissociation and eddy diffusion processes are included in the GMM, the simulated annual asymmetry of NmF2 is only 13%. Furthermore, the annual asymmetry increase in neutral composition in our GMM simulations can only explain about one fifth of the ionospheric annual asymmetry. Therefore, the atomic oxygen production mechanism is unlikely to be a major contributor to the ionospheric annual asymmetry.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7ks6t67

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-07-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact