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Interferometer studies of equatorial F region irregularities and drifts
Author(s) -
Kudeki E.,
Fejer B. G.,
Farley D. T.,
Ierkic H. M.
Publication year - 1981
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/gl008i004p00377
Subject(s) - geology , electrojet , dynamo , geophysics , geodesy , f region , ionosphere , altitude (triangle) , radar , interferometry , shear (geology) , magnetic field , earth's magnetic field , physics , optics , geometry , petrology , telecommunications , mathematics , quantum mechanics , computer science
A radar interferometer technique developed at Jicamarca, Peru and first used to study electrojet irregularities has now been used successfully to study plasma turbulence in the equatorial F region. Our first results have shown that the most ‘turbulent’ echoes appear to come from a region that extends for tens of kilometers in altitude but for only a kilometer or less in the east‐west direction. This slab may very well be the wall of a depleted region, a plasma ‘bubble’. Sometimes the irregularities can be tracked as they move eastward or westward. Velocity profiles for the evening period obtained in this way show a strong shear, with westward velocities at the lowest altitudes observed and eastward velocities above. A plausible explanation for this shear is that the westward drifts are driven by electric fields produced by westward E region winds and mapped up along magnetic field lines, while at higher heights, where the electron density is greater, the drifts are controlled by the F region dynamo driven by eastward winds.