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Comparison of protonospheric electron content measurements from the American and European sectors
Author(s) -
Kersley L.,
Klobuchar J. A.
Publication year - 1978
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/gl005i002p00123
Subject(s) - equinox , ionosphere , atmospheric sciences , diurnal temperature variation , daytime , electron density , latitude , satellite , environmental science , middle latitudes , variation (astronomy) , meteorology , climatology , electron , physics , geography , geodesy , geology , astrophysics , astronomy , quantum mechanics
Average protonospheric electron contents, line integral measurements determined from observations of the ATS‐6 satellite radio beacon at Hamilton, U.S.A. and Aberystwyth, U.K. are compared. It is shown that the two sets of data would be expected to be representative of measurements obtained at mid‐latitude stations in North America and Europe respectively. The American protonospheric content magnitudes are lower than those from Europe and show a diurnal variation maximizing at night in winter through equinox in contrast to the daytime maximum found consistently in the Aberystwyth data. It is suggested that the differences may be interpreted in terms of ionospheric/protonospheric interactions in both local and conjugate hemispheres and the similarities in the forms of the diurnal variation of the American results with those of peak density in the conjugate ionosphere are noted.