Configuration of the upper boundary of the ionosphere |
| |
Authors: | Tamara L Gulyaeva |
| |
Institution: | (1) IZMIRAN, 142190 Troitsk, Moscow Region, Russia;(2) Space Research Center, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Bartycka 18A, 00-716 Warszawa, Poland |
| |
Abstract: | Variations of the upper boundary of the ionosphere (UBI) are investigated based on three sources of information: (i) ionosonde-derived
parameters: critical frequency foF2, propagation factor M3000F2, and sub-peak thickness of the bottomside electron density profile; (ii) total electron content (TEC) observations from signals
of the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites; (iii) model electron densities of the International Reference Ionosphere
(IRI*) extended towards the plasmasphere. The ionospheric slab thickness is calculated as ratio of TEC to the F2 layer peak electron
density, NmF2, representing a measure of thickness of electron density profile in the bottomside and topside ionosphere eliminating the
plasmaspheric slab thickness of GPS-TEC with the IRI* code. The ratio of slab thickness to the real thickness in the topside ionosphere is deduced making use of a similar ratio
in the bottomside ionosphere with a weight Rw. Model weight Rw is represented as a superposition of the base-functions of local time, geomagnetic latitude, solar and magnetic activity.
The time-space variations of domain of convergence of the ionosphere and plasmasphere differ from an average value of UBI
at ∼1000 km over the earth.
Analysis for quiet monthly average conditions and during the storms (September 2002, October–November 2003, November 2004)
has shown shrinking UBI altitude at daytime to 400 km. The upper ionosphere height is increased by night with an ‘ionospheric
tail’ which expands from 1000 km to more than 2000 km over the earth under quiet and disturbed space weather. These effects
are interposed on a trend of increasing UBI height with solar activity when both the critical frequency foF2 and the peak height hmF2 are growing during the solar cycle. |
| |
Keywords: | ionosphere plasmasphere total electron content model electron density International Reference Ionosphere |
本文献已被 SpringerLink 等数据库收录! |
|