A study of the undisturbed mid-latitude ionosphere using simultaneous multiple site ionosonde measurements during the Sundial-86 campaign

Journal Article · Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 1990 · Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/JA095iA06p08271· OSTI ID:5377515

Sica, R J ^[1]; Schunk, R W ^[2]; Willkinson, P J ^[3]

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1. Univ. of Western Ontario, London (Canada)
2. Utah State Univ., Logan (USA)
3. Ionospheric Prediction Services, Radio and Space Services, Darlinghurst (Australia)

The Sundial-86 campaign obtained simultaneous ionosonde measurements of N{sub m}F2 from 41 mid-latitude sites geographically dispersed around the world from September 21 to October 5, 1986. A three-dimensional, time-dependent model of Earth's ionoshpere has been used to fit the variations in N{sub m}F2 obtained from these sites. The model successfully reproduced the measurements in both the northern and southern hemispheres using the vertical plasma drift as a free parameter. During geomagnetically quiet conditions this drift is primarily due to the meridional neutral wind. The vertical plasma drift required to fit the data is consistent from location to location and the deduced meridional neutral wind is also consistent with previous neutral wind measurements and models. However, it is shown that a lack of knowledge of the variation of the O{sup +} flux at the top of the atmosphere introduces a large uncertainty in the deduced thermospheric winds.

• OSTI ID: 5377515
• Journal Information: Journal of Geophysical Research; (United States), Vol. 95:A6; ISSN 0148-0227
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
F2 LAYER
PLASMA DRIFT
EARTH MAGNETOSPHERE
IONOSONDES
IONOSPHERE
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NORTHERN HEMISPHERE
OXYGEN IONS
SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
THERMOSPHERE
THREE-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
TIME DEPENDENCE
WIND
CHARGED PARTICLES
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
EARTH PLANET
ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT
EQUIPMENT
F REGION
IONS
PLANETARY IONOSPHERES
PLANETS
RADIO EQUIPMENT
640201* - Atmospheric Physics- Auroral
Ionospheric
& Magetospheric Phenomena