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Diurnal variation of winter F region ionosphere for solar minimum at both Zhongshan Station, Antarctica, and Svalbard Station, Arctic
Author(s) -
Zhang BeiChen,
Yang ShengGao,
Xu Sheng,
Liu RuiYuan,
Häggström I.,
Zhang QingHe,
Hu ZeJun,
Huang DeHong,
Hu HongQiao
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2015ja021465
Subject(s) - noon , atmospheric sciences , diurnal temperature variation , latitude , earth's magnetic field , ionosphere , local time , geomagnetic latitude , environmental science , climatology , geology , physics , geodesy , magnetic field , geophysics , statistics , mathematics , quantum mechanics
Diurnal variation features of wintertime F 2 peak electron density ( N m F 2 ) representative for solar minimum at both Zhongshan station, Antarctica, and Svalbard station are compared and analyzed. Both stations are located around cusp latitude and are almost on the same geomagnetic meridian plane in both hemispheres. For quiet time period, typical N m F 2 diurnal variation features at Svalbard station show double peaks with a decrease of N m F 2 around magnetic local noon (~UT + 3 h); N m F 2 diurnal variation at Zhongshan station shows one major peak around magnetic local noon (~UT + 1.75 h), followed by a sharp decrease of N m F 2 , and a subpeak around 1500 UT. Simulation results of the high‐latitude ionospheres in both hemispheres agree well with observations at both stations. It is found that the major difference of N m F 2 variation between both stations can be explained by the unique location of each station relative to the sunlit demarcation line during the day. For quiet time period, photoionization from lower latitude contributes to the major peak of N m F 2 in the diurnal variation at Zhongshan station, while the interaction between horizontal convection and auroral precipitation is the main cause for N m F 2 variation at Svalbard station. For active time period, both stations show the increase of N m F 2 due to transportation of higher plasma density from lower latitudes on the dayside with the expansion of the polar cap and the additional ionization from soft‐precipitating electrons.