Open AccessDeducing storm time F region ionospheric dynamics from 3‐D time‐varying imaging
Author(s) -
DattaBarua S.,
Bust G. S.,
Crowley G.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2010ja016304
Subject(s) - ionosphere , millstone hill , middle latitudes , incoherent scatter , electric field , geology , f region , data assimilation , geophysics , storm , zenith , atmospheric sciences , computational physics , meteorology , geodesy , physics , quantum mechanics
The inversion algorithm for Estimating Model Parameters from Ionospheric Reverse Engineering (EMPIRE) has been created to gain insight into ionospheric dynamics, particularly when direct measurement is unavailable. We extend the capabilities of EMPIRE here, in order to demonstrate its effectiveness on densities obtained from real data. We apply this method to real Ionospheric Data‐Assimilation 4‐Dimensional (IDA4D) data from storm time measurements, focusing on the midlatitude F 2 layer. EMPIRE is used to estimate midlatitude field‐aligned and field‐perpendicular drifts. The estimated upward drifts from EMPIRE are validated against measurements obtained from the Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar zenith antenna. The horizontal × drifts are compared to the assimilative mapping of ionospheric electrodynamics (AMIE) model, which estimates drifts from data sources independent of those used in IDA4D. Results show that the direction and magnitude of the × drifts (and therefore the electric fields) may be deduced from imaging based primarily on total electron content data, although altitude variation is not significantly discernible. We also indicate that the initial uplift of the storm‐enhanced density may have been more strongly influenced by field‐aligned contributions of neutral winds and diffusion than the electric fields.