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Direct Evidence for the Dissipation of Small‐Scale Ionospheric Plasma Structures by a Conductive E Region
Author(s) -
Ivarsen Magnus F,
Jin Yaqi,
Spicher Andres,
Clausen Lasse B N
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1029/2019ja026500
Subject(s) - dissipation , ionosphere , plasma , computational physics , electron density , spectral line , physics , amplitude , diffusion , polar , geophysics , astronomy , optics , quantum mechanics , thermodynamics
The conductivity of the ionospheric E region is known to cause effective dissipation of plasma structures in the F region. We use 3.5 years of 16‐Hz sampling rate electron density measurements from the Swarm advanced data set to investigate seasonal dependencies of plasma structure dissipation. Using a novel algorithm to infer plasma structure dissipation through detection of spectral breaks in density fluctuation power spectra, we analyze 100,000 spectra based on data from Swarm A in both the northern and southern polar caps. For the first time, we can present long‐term development of small‐scale (∼1‐10 km) plasma structure diffusion in the high‐latitude ionospheric F region. We discuss possible reasons for these variations. This study presents evidence for the E region as an important factor in the seasonal variation of F region plasma irregularity amplitudes.