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Plumex II: A second set of coincident radar and rocket observations of equatorial spread‐F
Author(s) -
Szuszczewicz E. P.,
Tsunoda R. T.,
Narcisi R.,
Holmes J. C.
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/gl008i007p00803
Subject(s) - rocket (weapon) , plume , geology , upwelling , radar , geophysics , atmospheric sciences , physics , geodesy , meteorology , aerospace engineering , oceanography , engineering
PLUMEX II, the second rocket in a two‐rocket operation that successfully executed coincident rocket and radar measurements of backscatter plumes and plasma depletions, was launched into the mid‐phase of well‐developed equatorial spread‐F. In contrast with the first operation, the PLUMEX II results show large scale F‐region irregularities only on the bottomside gradient with smaller scale irregularities (i.e., small scale structure imbedded in larger scale features) less intense than corresponding observations in PLUMEX I. The latter result could support current interpretations of east‐west plume asymmetry which suggests that during initial upwelling the western wall of a plume (the PLUMEX I case) is more unstable than its eastern counterpart (the PLUMEX II case). In addition, ion mass spectrometer results are found to provide further support for an ion transport model which "captures" bottomside ions in an upwelling bubble and transports them to high altitudes.