Simultaneous radar and satellite observations of the polar cusp/cleft at Sondre Stromfjord. Interim scientific report

Technical Report · Sun Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1989

OSTI ID:7163470

Valladares, C E; Basu, S; Niciejewski, R J; Sheehan, R E

On February 9, 1988 a multi-instrument observation of the dayside polar ionosphere was made at Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland as part of a CEDAR high latitude campaign. Our objective was to observe the low altitude signature of the cusp during southward IMF but under fairly quiet ionospheric conditions (Kp=2). The HiLat satellite measured in-situ particle precipitation, field-aligned currents and velocity shears in the dayside cusp/cleft, while the VHF beacon on board showed large phase scintillation and saturated intensity scintillation. The phase spectral index was fairly shallow indicating that large power spectral density was present up to scales on the order of 100m. during the spacecraft overflight, the radar was scanning close to the F region projection of the satellite track. It is the object of this paper to compare the radar measured thermal density, Ti and Te features in the F region with topside density and velocity structures and particle precipitation characteristics measured in-situ by the satellite at 830 km. The precipitating electron flux measured by HiLat was also input to an ionospheric chemistry model that calculates electron density and temperature profiles for different exospheric temperatures. The modeling results show that most of the features of the radar data may be explained in terms of cleft precipitation, consequent higher exospheric temperatures and enhanced convection.

• Research Organization: Emmanuel Coll., Boston, MA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 7163470
• Report Number(s): AD-A-217558/6/XAB
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

640201* -- Atmospheric Physics-- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ALIGNMENT
CHARGED PARTICLES
CHARGED-PARTICLE PRECIPITATION
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
CONVECTION
CURRENTS
DOCUMENT TYPES
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
ELECTRIC CURRENTS
ELECTRON DENSITY
ELECTRON PRECIPITATION
ENERGY TRANSFER
EXOSPHERE
F REGION
GREENLAND
HEAT TRANSFER
HIGH TEMPERATURE
INCOHERENT SCATTERING
INDEXES
INTERPLANETARY MAGNETIC FIELDS
IONOSPHERE
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MASS TRANSFER
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MEASURING INSTRUMENTS
MECHANICAL PROPERTIES
MONITORING
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
PLASMA
POLAR CUSP
POLAR REGIONS
PRECIPITATION
RADAR
RANGE FINDERS
SATELLITES
SATURATION
SCATTERING
SCINTILLATIONS
SEPARATION PROCESSES
SHEAR PROPERTIES
SPECTRA
THERMODYNAMIC PROPERTIES
VELOCITY