Identification

Title

Wavenumber broadening of the quasi 2 day planetary wave in the ionosphere

Abstract

Using the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Electrodynamics General Circulation Model, we investigate the observed zonal wavenumber broadening phenomena in the ionospheric quasi 2 day oscillation (QTDO) that is associated with westward zonal wavenumber 3 (W3) quasi 2 day wave (QTDW) perturbations in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). We aim to explain why the observed longitudinal structures of the QTDOs in the ionosphere are different from those of the QTDWs in the MLT. We find that large QTDOs in the ionosphere with zonal wavenumbers other than W3 occur in the model run with the true magnetic field, but not in the model run with an aligned dipole field. These numerical experiments suggest that the occurrence of the additional zonal wavenumbers in ionospheric QTDOs is related to the longitudinal variations of the Earth's magnetic field configuration, strength, and dip angle, which have distinct stationary zonal wavenumbers. We also find that when the specified W3 QTDW winds drive ionospheric plasma motion in the magnetic field, the resultant QTDOs in ionospheric parameters, such as the dynamo electric field, ion vertical drifts, plasma densities, and total electron content, have more complicated longitudinal variations than simply W3, corresponding to a zonal wavenumber broadening effect. Additionally, we find that the wavenumber broadening effect in the ionosphere can be fed back onto the neutrals through ion drag, to produce small QTDW winds with new wavenumbers in the thermosphere.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d74f1rmd

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

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End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2013-06-03T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

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Conformity

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version of format

Constraints related to access and use

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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

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact