Identification

Title

Behavior of the F₂ peak ionosphere over the South Pacific at dusk during quiet summer conditions from COSMIC data

Abstract

The six-satellite Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) mission makes routine ionospheric measurements over the entire globe using occultation techniques. These observations have been used in this study to develop global-scale climate maps of Nm F₂ and hm f₂ during the southern (northern) summer (winter). Enhanced electron densities that appear to be associated with the southern, equatorial (Appleton) anomaly are displaced far southward at dusk and, within about an hour, form the Weddell Sea anomaly. Coincidentally, the height of the F₂ peak increases on the northern boundary of this anomaly. This height increase is also displaced southward as the enhanced electron densities are displaced southward, suggesting that the electron density increases are associated with the F₂ peak rising. As well as being an interesting phenomenon in its own right, this behavior may shed new light on the formation of the Weddell Sea anomaly. No unambiguous explanation for this behavior can be determined from the data presently available, but an examination of some possibilities suggests that an evening downward flux of plasma from the plasmasphere may be at least partly responsible for the phenomenon.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7n879x8

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

2008-12-11T00:00:00Z

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