Ionospheric scintillations and in-situ measurements at an auroral location in the European sector

Technical Report · Fri May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1987

OSTI ID:6494197

Basu, S; Basu, S; MacKenzie, E; Weimer, D

The orbiting HiLat satellite offered a unique opportunity for studying the ionospheric scintillation parameters in relation to the in-situ measurements of ionization density, drift velocity, field-aligned current, and particle precipitation during the sunspot minimum period. This paper discusses the results of such a morphological study based on observations at the auroral-oval station of Tromso, Norway. The dynamics of the spatial and temporal extent of this region are illustrated in the invariant latitude/magnetic local time grid. The geometrical enhancement of scintillations observed during the alignment of the propagation path with the local magnetic L-shell is shown to be the most consistent and conspicuous feature of scintillations in the nighttime auroral oval. The steepening of phase spectral slope in this region is indicative of the presence of L-shell aligned sheet-like irregularities at long scale lengths. The seasonal variational of total electron content (TEC) determined from the differential Doppler measurements of HiLat transmissions is discussed in relation to the in-situ density measurements at 830 km. The results are also utilized to illustrate the dependence of ionospheric structure parameters on short-term variability of solar activity during the sunspot minimum period. Special effort is made to illustrate that the joint study of scintillation/TEC and in-situ parameters provides an insight into the nature of magnetospheric coupling with the high-latitude ionosphere.

• Research Organization: Emmanuel Coll., Boston, MA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6494197
• Report Number(s): AD-A-200761/5/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640104 -- Astrophysics & Cosmology-- Solar Phenomena
640201* -- Atmospheric Physics-- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ALIGNMENT
ANISOTROPY
AURORAE
AURORAL OVAL
DIMENSIONS
DYNAMICS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS
ELECTRON DENSITY
GEOMETRY
ION DENSITY
IONIZATION
IONOSPHERE
LENGTH
MATHEMATICS
MEASURING METHODS
MECHANICS
MORPHOLOGY
OPTIMIZATION
PARTICLES
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
POLAR REGIONS
PRECIPITATION
SCINTILLATIONS
SEASONAL VARIATIONS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SOLAR ACTIVITY
SOLAR CYCLE
SPECTRA
STARSPOTS
STELLAR ACTIVITY
SUNSPOTS
VARIATIONS
VELOCITY