Climatology of the O+ temperatures over Arecibo for the historical deep solar minimum using Incoherent Scatter Radar and airglow data.

Abstract:

At Arecibo Observatory (AO) a comprehensive description of the ionosphere and thermosphere environment is achieved by the synergy between the Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) and the optical instruments nested on site. An example of this synergy is present in his work where optical and radar techniques were reconciled in order to obtain the O⁺ temperature variability for 2008 and 2009. During this period, a historical deep solar minimum condition was registered with a remarkable absence of sunspots for a long period (translated into a decreasing in the EUV-UV irradiance). This particular feature implies in an important tool to investigate the variability of O+ temperature, once that any variation can be related to season (modulated by the neutral atmosphere) and/or another modulator different than solar energy input. The OII 7320 Å twilight airglow data used in this work were obtained during new moon periods using a high-spectral resolution Fabry-Perot Interferometer (FPI) with CCD array detection. The FPI was configured with 0.9 cm plate spacing, which produced a free spectral range of 0.298Å and a spectral resolution of 0.03Å, sufficient to sample line width temperatures as low as 500K. A very narrow 3Å Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) three-cavity interference filter was also used.