Identification

Title

Statistical behavior of the longitudinal variations of daytime electron density in the topside ionosphere at middle latitudes

Abstract

Electron density in the topside ionosphere has significant variations with latitude, longitude, altitude, local time, season, and solar cycle. This paper focuses on the global and seasonal features of longitudinal structures of daytime topside electron density (Ne) at middle latitudes and their possible causes. We used in situ Ne measured by DEMETER and F-2 layer peak height (h(m)F(2)) and peak density (NmF2) from COSMIC. The longitudinal variations of the daytime topside Ne show a wave number 2-type structure in the Northern Hemisphere, whereas those in the Southern Hemisphere are dominated by a wave number 1 structure and are much larger than those in the Northern Hemisphere. The patterns around December solstice (DS) in the Northern Hemisphere (winter) are different from other seasons, whereas the patterns in the Southern Hemisphere are similar in each season. Around March equinox (ME), June solstice (JS), and September equinox (SE) in the Northern Hemisphere and around ME, SE, and DS in the Southern Hemisphere, the longitudinal variations of topside Ne have similar patterns to h(m)F(2). Around JS in the Southern Hemisphere (winter), the topside Ne has similar patterns to NmF2 and h(m)F(2) does not change much with longitude. Thus, the topside variations may be explained intuitively in terms of h(m)F(2) and NmF2. This approach works reasonably well in most of the situations except in the northern winter in the topside not too far from the F-2 peak. In this sense, understanding variations in h(m)F(2) and NmF2 becomes an important and relevant subject for this topside ionospheric study.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7154jt2

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

2016-11-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

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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