Premium
Advection of the equatorial anomaly over Arecibo by small‐storm related disturbance dynamo electric fields
Author(s) -
Aponte Néstor,
González Sixto A.,
Kelley Michael C.,
Tepley Craig A.,
Pi Xiaoqing,
Iijima Byron
Publication year - 2000
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 - 10.1029/2000gl000025
Subject(s) - dynamo , ionosphere , geology , daytime , geomagnetic storm , ionosonde , geophysics , anomaly (physics) , tec , earth's magnetic field , f region , advection , incoherent scatter , atmospheric sciences , climatology , electron density , physics , magnetic field , electron , quantum mechanics , condensed matter physics , thermodynamics
During highly disturbed geomagnetic periods, both the Arecibo radar and the Ramey ionosonde have recorded impressive nighttime ionospheric enhancements in which the peak electron density exceeded 1 × 10 12 m −3 and the F 2 peak height went above 400 km. In the past it has been suggested that these events could be caused by either a downward plasmaspheric flux that increases the density in the F region or by an eastward electric field that pushes the equatorial anomaly poleward to the Caribbean sector. On February 17–18, 1999 the Arecibo radar made observations during an event in which the electron density again rose to daytime values near midnight. For this event, the peaks in density were observed predominantly southeast of Arecibo while the ions sustained a northward‐eastward motion due to an eastward‐southward storm dynamo electric field. TEC maps from GPS for this night confirmed that the density enhancements were due to a poleward expansion of the equatorial anomaly.