Evaluation of Atmospheric 3-Day Waves as a Source of Day-to-Day Variation of the Ionospheric Longitudinal Structure

Guiping Liu; Scott L England; Chin S Lin; Nicholas M Pedatella; Jeffrey H Klenzing; Christoph R Englert; Brian J Harding; Thomas J Immel; Douglas E Rowland

doi:10.1029/2021gl094877

Evaluation of Atmospheric 3-Day Waves as a Source of Day-to-Day Variation of the Ionospheric Longitudinal Structure

Geophys Res Lett. 2021 Aug;48(15):e2021GL094877. doi: 10.1029/2021gl094877. Epub 2021 Aug 6.

Authors

Guiping Liu^{1

2

3}, Scott L England⁴, Chin S Lin⁵, Nicholas M Pedatella^{6

7}, Jeffrey H Klenzing³, Christoph R Englert⁸, Brian J Harding¹, Thomas J Immel¹, Douglas E Rowland³

Affiliations

¹ Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
² CUA/NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
³ Heliophysics Science Division, ITM Physics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
⁴ Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
⁵ Lins Institute of Science, Waltham, MA, USA.
⁶ COSMIC Program Office, University of Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁷ High Altitude Observatory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO, USA.
⁸ Space Science Division, U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, USA.

Abstract

We report for the first time the day-to-day variation of the longitudinal structure in height of the F₂ layer (h_mF₂) in the equatorial ionosphere using multi-satellite observations of electron density profiles by the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate-2 (COSMIC-2). These observations reveal a ~3-day modulation of the h_mF₂ wavenumber-4 structure viewed in a fixed local time frame during January 30-February 14, 2021. Simultaneously, ~3-day planetary wave activity is discerned from zonal wind observations at ~100 km by the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) Michelson Interferometer for Global High-Resolution Thermospheric Imaging (MIGHTI). This signature is not observed at ~180-250 km altitudes, suggesting the dissipation of this wave below the F-region. We propose that the 3-day variation identified in h _mF₂ is likely caused by the planetary wave-tide interaction through the E-region dynamo.

Abstract

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