TY - JOUR
T1 - Dual Sounding Rocket and C/NOFS Satellite Observations of DC Electric Fields and Plasma Density in the Equatorial E- and F-Region Ionosphere at Sunset
AU - Pfaff, R.
AU - Kudeki, E.
AU - Freudenreich, H.
AU - Rowland, D.
AU - Larsen, M.
AU - Klenzing, J.
N1 - The authors thank the reviewers for their helpful suggestions, including the role of the different apex altitudes between the satellite and rocket trajectories. The authors thank Hassan Akbari for Langmuir probe calculations and Steven Martin and Weidong Yang for assistance with the data products and display. The authors acknowledge the expertise of the NASA/Wallops Flight Facility in expertly designing, building, testing, and launching the payloads and rocket systems. MFL was partially supported by NASA grant NNX10AL26G and NSF grant AGS‐2012994. US researchers were supported by a NASA grant that resulted from a peer‐reviewed proposal to NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
The authors thank the reviewers for their helpful suggestions, including the role of the different apex altitudes between the satellite and rocket trajectories. The authors thank Hassan Akbari for Langmuir probe calculations and Steven Martin and Weidong Yang for assistance with the data products and display. The authors acknowledge the expertise of the NASA/Wallops Flight Facility in expertly designing, building, testing, and launching the payloads and rocket systems. MFL was partially supported by NASA grant NNX10AL26G and NSF grant AGS-2012994. US researchers were supported by a NASA grant that resulted from a peer-reviewed proposal to NASA's Science Mission Directorate.
PY - 2022/5
Y1 - 2022/5
N2 - E × B plasma drifts and plasma number density were measured on two NASA rockets launched simultaneously at sunset from Kwajalein Atoll with apogees of 182 and 331 km, with similar, coincident measurements gathered on the Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite at 390 km. The combined measurements portray a highly dynamic ionosphere in a narrow range of local time and altitude, providing evidence of vortex-like motions. Although the vertical plasma drift was upwards, its magnitude was not constant, increasing between ∼150 and 250 km altitude where the plasma density was reduced. The zonal plasma drifts displayed a shear with altitude, changing from eastward to westward flow below 270 km, coincident with the larger upward drifts and consistent with the maintenance of the vortex flow. The plasma density on the western flank was highly structured compared to the eastern flank, despite the fact that the western region corresponded to slightly earlier local times. These observations illustrate that the low latitude ionosphere at sunset must be considered as an ensemble of interconnected flows encompassing an evolving “theater,” as opposed to a background that simply unfolds linearly with respect to local time. The observations also underscore how satellites at high altitudes do not capture the highly dynamic ionosphere and thermosphere at the lower altitudes which are critical for understanding the electrodynamics system. Such motions set the stage for large scale plasma instabilities to form later in the evening, as observed by radars at Kwajalein and subsequent passes of the C/NOFS satellite.
AB - E × B plasma drifts and plasma number density were measured on two NASA rockets launched simultaneously at sunset from Kwajalein Atoll with apogees of 182 and 331 km, with similar, coincident measurements gathered on the Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite at 390 km. The combined measurements portray a highly dynamic ionosphere in a narrow range of local time and altitude, providing evidence of vortex-like motions. Although the vertical plasma drift was upwards, its magnitude was not constant, increasing between ∼150 and 250 km altitude where the plasma density was reduced. The zonal plasma drifts displayed a shear with altitude, changing from eastward to westward flow below 270 km, coincident with the larger upward drifts and consistent with the maintenance of the vortex flow. The plasma density on the western flank was highly structured compared to the eastern flank, despite the fact that the western region corresponded to slightly earlier local times. These observations illustrate that the low latitude ionosphere at sunset must be considered as an ensemble of interconnected flows encompassing an evolving “theater,” as opposed to a background that simply unfolds linearly with respect to local time. The observations also underscore how satellites at high altitudes do not capture the highly dynamic ionosphere and thermosphere at the lower altitudes which are critical for understanding the electrodynamics system. Such motions set the stage for large scale plasma instabilities to form later in the evening, as observed by radars at Kwajalein and subsequent passes of the C/NOFS satellite.
KW - electric field measurements
KW - equatorial ionosphere
KW - sounding rockets
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U2 - 10.1029/2021JA030191
DO - 10.1029/2021JA030191
M3 - Article
C2 - 35860290
AN - SCOPUS:85131096362
SN - 2169-9380
VL - 127
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
IS - 5
M1 - e2021JA030191
ER -