scholarly journals Study of Equatorial Plasma Bubbles Using ASI and GPS Systems

Author(s):  
Dada P. Nade ◽  
Swapnil S. Potdar ◽  
Rani P. Pawar

The plasma irregularities have been frequently observed in the F-region, at low latitude regions, due to the instability processes occurring in the ionosphere. The depletions in electron density, as compared to the background density, is a signature of the plasma irregularities. These irregularities are also known as the “equatorial plasma bubble” (EPB). These EPBs can measure by the total electron content (TEC) using GPS receiver and by images of the nightglow OI 630.0 nm emissions using all sky imager (ASI). The current chapter is based on the review on the signature of the EPBs in TEC and ASI. measurements. We have also discussed the importance of the study of EPBs.

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Parashram T. Patil ◽  
Rupesh N. Ghodpage ◽  
Alok K. Taori ◽  
Rohit P. Patil ◽  
Subramanian Gurubaran ◽  
...  

<p>Over 53 nights of all sky airglow imager data collected during January-April 2012 from the low latitude station Kolhapur (16.68°N, 74.26°E; 10.6°N dip latitude) have been analyzed to study the F-region dynamics through the imaging of OI 630 nm emission line. The observed night airglow data were supported by the ionosonde measurements from Tirunelveli (8.7°N, 77.8°E; 0.51°N dip latitude). Well defined magnetic field aligned depletions were observed during the observation period. Out of 53 nights, 40 nights exhibited the occurrence of north-south aligned equatorial plasma bubbles. These plasma bubbles were found moving towards east with drift speed in range between 70 to 200 m s<span><sup>-1</sup></span>. We have analyzed the zonal drift velocity variation and relation of bubble occurrence with the base height of the ionosphere together with the effects of the geomagnetic Ap and solar flux F<span><sub>10.7</sub></span> cm index in its first appearance.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fuqing Huang ◽  
Jiuhou Lei ◽  
Chao Xiong

&lt;p&gt;Equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) are typically ionospheric irregularities that frequently occur at the low latitudes and equatorial regions, which can significantly affect the propagation of radio waves. In this study, we reported a unique strong EPB that happened at middle latitudes over the Asian sector during the quiescent period. The multiple observations including total electron content (TEC) from Beidou geostationary satellites and GPS, ionosondes, in-situ electron density from SWARM and meteor radar are used to explore the characteristic and mechanism of the observed EPB. The unique strong EPB was associated with great nighttime TEC/electron density enhancement at the middle latitudes, which moves toward eastward. The potential physical processes of the observed EPB are also discussed.&lt;/p&gt;


2020 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 897-931 ◽  
Author(s):  
César Buchile Abud de Oliveira ◽  
Teddy Modesto Surco Espejo ◽  
Alison Moraes ◽  
Emanoel Costa ◽  
Jonas Sousasantos ◽  
...  

1981 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-39
Author(s):  
A. Tan ◽  
S. T. Wu

The coupled continuity and momentum equations of O+ and H+ ions in the F region and the protonosphere are solved for a mid-latitude station (Arecibo) and a low-latitude station (Jicamarca) to investigate the diurnal behavior of the peak electron density NmF2, the height of the peak HmF2, the O+-H+ transition height Htr and the transition level ion density Ntr. The effects of the neutral wind on the NmF2, HmF2 Ntr and Htr curves above Arecibo are more important than and generally in the opposite direction of those of a sinusoidal elctromagnetic drift. the electromagnetic drift plays a fa-reaching role in shaping the ionospheric and protonospheric profiles at Jicamarca.  An upward drift that peaks during the day produces a 'valey' in the NmF2 curve, while an upward drift that stays constant during ost of the day produces a 'plateau'.  The nighttime decay in Nmf2 is due to the conbined effects of a slow downward drift and chemical recombination.  A nocturnal increase in NmF2 is due to a sufficiently large downward drift when the resultant 'squeezing' of the field tubes overcomes the O+ loss rate.  The diurnal variations of HmF2 and Htr tend to follow that of the upward drift velocity pattern, with gradients somewhat smoothed.  A downward reversal of the drift at sunset causes and enhancement in the post-sunset Ntr. Finally, the applicability of the model to the study of the total electron content measurements of the ATS-6 radio beacon experiments at Ootacamund is demonstrated.  By comparing with the observed values, the probable drift velocities over Ootacamund are determined for October and December, 1975.  The drift velocity patterns show broad similitarities with those observed over Jicamarca.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (24) ◽  
pp. 152-160
Author(s):  
Siti Syukriah Khamdan ◽  
Tajul Ariffin Musa ◽  
Suhaila M. Buhari

This paper presents the detection of the equatorial plasma bubbles (EPB) using the Global Positioning System (GPS) ionospheric tomography method over Peninsular Malaysia. This paper aims to investigate the capability of the GPS ionospheric tomography method in detecting the variations of the EPB over the study area. In doing so, a previous case study during post-sunset 5th April 2011 has been selected as a reference for the detection of the EPBs over the study area. It has been observed that at least three structures of the EPBs have been captured based on the rate of change total electron content (TEC) index (ROTI) from 12 UT until 19 UT. Therefore, the three-dimensional ionospheric profiles have been reconstructed over Peninsular Malaysia using the tomography method during the study period in order to capture the signature of the EPBs. In this study, the detection of the EPBs using the tomography method is based on the rate of change of electron density (ROTNe). The results from three-dimensional ionospheric tomography show only two structures of EPBs are detected during the study period. It has been observed that the ROTNe depleted up to ~-12x109el/cm. Overall, the results in this study show that the GPS ionospheric tomography capable to be utilized in detecting the variations of EPBs in support of ionospheric studies and monitoring in the Malaysian region.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 4356
Author(s):  
Long Tang ◽  
Osei-Poku Louis ◽  
Wu Chen ◽  
Mingli Chen

In this study, we present a Rate of Total Electron Content Index (ROTI)-aided equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) detection method based on a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) ionospheric Total Electron Content (TEC). This technique seeks the EPBs occurrence time according to the ROTI values and then extracts the detrended ionospheric TEC series, which include EPBs signals using a low-order, partial polynomial fitting strategy. The EPBs over the Hong Kong area during the year of 2014 were detected using this technique. The results show that the temporal distribution and occurrence of EPBs over the Hong Kong area are consistent with that of previous reports, and most of the TEC depletion error is smaller than 1.5 TECU (average is 0.63 TECU), suggesting that the detection method is feasible and highly accurate. Furthermore, this technique can extract the TEC depletion series more effectively, especially for those with a long duration, compared to previous method.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinghua Li ◽  
Guanyi Ma ◽  
Klemens Hocke ◽  
Qingtao Wan ◽  
Jiangtao Fan ◽  
...  

Abstract. This paper detects the ionospheric irregularities with rate of total electron content (TEC) change index, ROTI from GPS observation at Taoyuan (24.95° N, 121.16° E) for the solar medium and minimum years of 2003 and 2008 in the declining phase of cycle 23, the solar maximum of 2014 in solar cycle 24. Local occurrence rate (LOR) is proposed to clarify the characteristics of the irregularities together with monthly occurrence rate (MOR) and ROTI maximum for 3 latitude belts, 20–23° N, 23–26° N, 26–29° N, around the equatorial anomaly crest. MOR in May/June is larger than those in equinoxes in 2008 and 2003, which is different from that of equatorial plasma bubbles. In 2014 although MOR maximum is observed in equinoxes, the MOR in May and June is much larger than that in September. Moreover, MORs in May to August at higher latitude belt 26–29° N are larger than those in lower latitude belts and smaller in the equinoxes. The latitudinal dependence of the LORs tends to be similar to that of MORs. Seasonal variations of LORs have a similar trend for different solar activities. Maximum LORs are observed in Feb/Mar and Sep/Oct, and moderate around June, which resemble those of plasma bubbles in seasonal variations, except for latitude belt 26–29° N where maximum LORs are seen in May–Jul. The seasonal variation of ROTI maximum conforms to that of the LOR. The results suggest that irregularities near the crest in May to August are mainly originated from nonequatorial process, which is more frequently happened but weaker than plasma bubble in both spatiotemporal scale and strength.


2003 ◽  
Vol 21 (12) ◽  
pp. 2315-2322 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. Pimenta ◽  
P. R. Fagundes ◽  
Y. Sahai ◽  
J. A. Bittencourt ◽  
J. R. Abalde

Abstract. The equatorial ionospheric irregularities have been observed in the past few years by different techniques (e.g. ground-based radar, digisonde, GPS, optical instruments, in situ satellite and rocket instrumentation), and its time evolution and propagation characteristics can be used to study important aspects of ionospheric dynamics and thermosphere-ionosphere coupling. At present, one of the most powerful optical techniques to study the large-scale ionospheric irregularities is the all-sky imaging photometer system, which normally measures the strong F-region nightglow 630 nm emission from atomic oxygen. The monochromatic OI 630 nm emission images usually show quasi-north-south magnetic field-aligned intensity depletion bands, which are the bottomside optical signatures of large-scale F-region plasma irregularities (also called plasma bubbles). The zonal drift velocities of the plasma bubbles can be inferred from the space-time displacement of the dark structures (low intensity regions) seen on the images. In this study, images obtained with an all-sky imaging photometer, using the OI 630 nm nightglow emission, from Cachoeira Paulista (22.7° S, 45° W, 15.8° S dip latitude), Brazil, have been used to determine the nocturnal monthly and latitudinal variation characteristics of the zonal plasma bubble drift velocities in the low latitude (16.7° S to 28.7° S) region. The east and west walls of the plasma bubble show a different evolution with time. The method used here is based on the western wall of the bubble, which presents a more stable behavior. Also, the observed zonal plasma bubble drift velocities are compared with the thermospheric zonal neutral wind velocities obtained from the HWM-90 model (Hedin et al., 1991) to investigate the thermosphere-ionosphere coupling. Salient features from this study are presented and discussed.Key words. Ionosphere (ionosphere-atmosphere interactions; ionospheric irregularities; instruments and techniques)


2015 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Park ◽  
H. Lühr ◽  
M. Noja

Abstract. Total electron content (TEC) between Low-Earth-Orbit (LEO) satellites and the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) satellites can be used to constrain the three-dimensional morphology of equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs). In this study we investigate TEC measured onboard the Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) from 2001 to 2005. We only use TEC data obtained when CHAMP passed through EPBs: that is, when in situ plasma density measurements at CHAMP altitude also show EPB signatures. The observed TEC gradient along the CHAMP track is strongest when the corresponding GNSS satellite is located equatorward and westward of CHAMP with elevation angles of about 40–60°. These elevation and azimuth angles are in agreement with the angles expected from the morphology of the plasma depletion shell proposed by Kil et al.(2009).


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