Identification

Title

Modes of high-latitude auroral conductance variability derived from DMSP energetic electron precipitation observations: Empirical orthogonal function analysis

Abstract

We provide the first ever characterization of the primary modes of ionospheric Hall and Pedersen conductance variability as empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs). These are derived from six satellite years of Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) particle data acquired during the rise of solar cycles 22 and 24. The 60 million DMSP spectra were each processed through the Global Airlglow Model. Ours is the first large-scale analysis of ionospheric conductances completely free of assumption of the incident electron energy spectra. We show that the mean patterns and first four EOFs capture ∼50.1 and 52.9% of the total Pedersen and Hall conductance variabilities, respectively. The mean patterns and first EOFs are consistent with typical diffuse auroral oval structures and quiet time strengthening/weakening of the mean pattern. The second and third EOFs show major disturbance features of magnetosphere-ionosphere (MI) interactions: geomagnetically induced auroral zone expansion in EOF2 and the auroral substorm current wedge in EOF3. The fourth EOFs suggest diminished conductance associated with ionospheric substorm recovery mode. We identify the most important modes of ionospheric conductance variability. Our results will allow improved modeling of the background error covariance needed for ionospheric assimilative procedures and improved understanding of MI coupling processes.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7r212wh

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

2015-12-01T00:00:00Z

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