Identification

Title

Formation of polar ionospheric tongue of ionization during minor geomagnetic disturbed conditions

Abstract

Previous investigations of ionospheric storm-enhanced density (SED) and tongue of ionization (TOI) focused mostly on the behavior of TOI during intense geomagnetic storms. Little attention has been paid to the spatial and temporal variations of TOI during weak to moderate geomagnetic disturbed conditions. In this paper we investigate the source and development of TOI during a moderate geomagnetic storm on 14 October 2012. Multi-instrumental observations including GPS total electron content (TEC), Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) in situ measured total ion concentration and ion drift velocity, SuperDARN measured polar ion convection patterns, and electron density profiles from the Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR) have been utilized in the current analysis. GPS TEC maps show salient TOI structures persisting for about 5 h over high latitudes of North America on 14 October 2012 in the later recovery phase of the storm when the magnitudes of IMF By and Bz were less than 5 nT. The PFISR electron density profiles indicate that the extra ionization for TEC enhancements mainly occurred in the topside ionosphere with no obvious changes in the bottomside ionosphere and vertical plasma drifts. Additionally, there were no signatures of penetration electric fields in the equatorial electrojet data and upward ion drifts at high latitudes. At the same time, strong subauroral polarization streams with ion drift speeds exceeding 2.5 km/s carried sunward fluxes and migrated toward lower latitudes for about 5° based on the DMSP cross-track drift measurements. Based on those measurements, we postulate that the combined effects of initial build-up of ionization at midlatitudes through daytime production of ionization and equatorward (or less poleward than normal daytime) neutral wind reducing downward diffusion along the inclined filed lines, and an expanded polar ion convection pattern and its associated horizontal plasma transport are important in the formation of the TOI.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7b859b3

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

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geoscientificInformation

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keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

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publication

effective date

2015-08-01T00:00:00Z

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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

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