edu.ucar.opensky::articles:17364 UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact 2025-12-26T13:40:06.648937 ISO 19115-2 Geographic Information - Metadata - Part 2: Extensions for Imagery and Gridded Data ISO 19115-2:2009(E) https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7t43vcc Global characteristics of occurrence of an additional layer in the ionosphere observed by COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3 2011-01-19T00:00:00Z publication https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7t43vcc https://doi.org/10.1029/2010GL045744 Zhao, B. author Wan, W. author Yue, Xinan author Liu, L. author Ren, Z. author Maosheng, H. author Liu, J. author UCAR/NCAR - Library publisher Global observations of electron density profile (EDP) from the COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3 satellites were used to investigate, for the first time, the additional stratification of the F2 layer over the equatorial ionosphere on a global scale, which is called F3 layer. The F3 layer in EDP was recognized through the altitude differential profile featured by two maxima existing from 220 km to the peak height of the electron density. There were ~9,400 cases of F3 layer selected out of ~448, 000 occultation events at low and equatorial areas during the period of April 2006 - September 2010. Statistical results show that the highest occurrence of F3 layer appears at dip latitude 7~8°/−7~−8° for Northern/Southern Hemisphere and is more pronounced during summer months at 10:00 - 14:00 LT. The occurrence also has a clear longitude dependence during boreal summer, with relatively higher occurrence at −80~−100°, −20~20°, 80~120° and −160~−170° longitudes, that is possibly associated with the wavenumber-3 diurnal tide (DE3). The results support the principle of the F3 layer proposed by Balan et al. (1998), which in turn validate the accuracy of the retrieval of the COSMIC EDP data. UCAR/NCAR - Library OpenSky Support PO Box 3000 Boulder CO 80307-3000 opensky@ucar.edu http://opensky.ucar.edu/ homepage pointOfContact PDF Text theme Resource Type 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z publication An edited version of this paper was published by AGU. Copyright 2011 American Geophysical Union. None eng geoscientificInformation