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Global Distribution of Nighttime Medium‐Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances Seen by Swarm Satellites
Author(s) -
Kil Hyosub,
Paxton Larry J.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2017gl074750
Subject(s) - ionosphere , solstice , longitude , latitude , local time , geodesy , f region , geology , electron density , swarm behaviour , atmospheric sciences , total electron content , geophysics , physics , electron , tec , mathematics , statistics , quantum mechanics , mathematical optimization
Abstract The activity of nighttime medium‐scale traveling ionospheric disturbance (MSTID) in middle latitudes (±25°–40° magnetic latitudes) is investigated using the measurements of the electron density by Swarm satellites. Fractional electron density fluctuation is used as a proxy for MSTIDs, and the MSTID distribution is derived from the observations in December 2013–January 2017. The MSTID activity shows a semiannual variation in most longitudes with the primary and secondary peaks during the June and December solstices, respectively. The distinguishing feature in the MSTID distribution is the high occurrence rate of MSTIDs around 150°E longitude in June–August. The longitudinal and annual distribution of MSTIDs shows a hemispheric symmetry, which we interpret as the demonstration of conjugacy in MSTIDs.