Daytime F layer trough and its relation to ionospheric-magnetospheric convection

Technical Report · Fri Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:6864786

Whalen, J A

The daytime F layer trough is studied by means of an extensive network of ground-based ionospheric sounders in the northern hemisphere under conditions of solar maximum near winter solstice. The trough is observed to be a continuous band having an instantaneous extent of thousands of kilometers consisting of depletions in the daytime electron density, often by an order of magnitude. It lies in regions of sunward ionospheric-magnetospheric convection, an afternoon sector corresponding to the dusk cell, a morning sector corresponding to the dawn cell, and morphology and activity dependence consistent with convection. As detected in the diurnal distributions of f(o)F(2), the trough is a persistent feature at high latitudes, appearing on each day of a 31-day period of continuous observation, and, although highly variable from day to day, is apparent in the monthly medians.

• Research Organization: Air Force Geophysics Lab., Hanscom AFB, MA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6864786
• Report Number(s): AD-A-219742/4/XAB; GL-TR--90-0055
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640201* -- Atmospheric Physics-- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CONVECTION
DAILY VARIATIONS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
EARTH PLANET
ELECTRON DENSITY
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
ENERGY TRANSFER
EQUIPMENT
F REGION
GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATIONS
HEAT TRANSFER
IONOSONDES
IONOSPHERE
LATITUDE EFFECT
MASS TRANSFER
MORPHOLOGY
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
PLANETS
RADIO EQUIPMENT
VARIATIONS