SA44A-04
Formation of Polar Ionospheric Tongue of Ionization during Minor Geomagnetic Disturbed Conditions
Thursday, 17 December 2015: 16:42
2016 (Moscone West)
Jing Liu1, Wenbin Wang1, Alan Geoffrey Burns2, Xinan Yue3, Shunrong Zhang4 and Yongliang Zhang5, (1)High Altitude Observatory, Boulder, CO, United States, (2)National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, United States, (3)UCAR, Boulder, CO, United States, (4)MIT Haystack Observatory, Westford, MA, United States, (5)Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States
Abstract:
Previous investigations of ionospheric storm-enhanced density (SED) and tongue of ionization (TOI) focused mostly on the behavior of TOI during intense geomagnetic storms. Little attention has been paid to the spatial and temporal variations of TOI during weak to moderate geomagnetic disturbed conditions. we investigate the source and development of TOI during a moderate geomagnetic storm on 14 October 2012.Multi-instrumental observations including GPS total electron content (TEC), Defense Meteorological SatelliteProgram(DMSP) in situ measured total ion concentration and ion drift velocity, SuperDARN measured polar ionconvection patterns, and electron density profiles from the Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR) have been utilized in the current analysis. GPS TEC maps show salient TOI structures persisting for about 5 h over high latitudes of North America on 14 October 2012 in the later recovery phase of the storm when the magnitudes of IMF By and Bz were less than 5 nT. The PFISR electron density profiles indicate that the extra ionization for TEC enhancements mainly occurred in the topside ionosphere with no obvious changes in the bottom side ionosphere and vertical plasma drifts. Additionally, there were no signatures of penetration electric fields in the equatorial electrojet data and upward ion drifts at high latitudes. At the same time, strong subauroral polarization streams with ion drift speeds exceeding 2.5 km/s carried sunward fluxes and migrated toward lower latitudes for about 5° based on the DMSP cross-track driftmeasurements. Based on those measurements,we postulate that the combined effects of initial build-up of ionization at midlatitudes through daytime production of ionization and equatorward (or less poleward than normal daytime) neutral wind reducing downward diffusion along the inclined filed lines, and an expanded polar ion convection pattern and its associated horizontal plasma transport are important in the formation of the TOI.
