ALBERT

Description: We report simultaneous observations of atmospheric gravity waves (AGW) in OI (557.7nm) and OH airglow images and VHF radar backscatter from field-aligned irregularities (FAI) in the E-region during the SEEK-2 (Sporadic-E Experiment over Kyushu 2) campaign period from 29 July to 9 August 2002. An all-sky imager was operated at Nishino-Omote (30.5 N, 130.1 E), Japan. On 14 nights, 17 AGW events were detected in OI and OH airglow images. AGW propagated mostly toward the northeast or southeast. From comparison with the E-region FAI occurrence, which is detected by a nearby VHF radar (31.57MHz), we found that AGW tended to propagate southeastward during FAI events. This result suggests that the interaction between AGW and E-region plasma plays an important role in generating FAI. Furthermore, polarization electric fields generated directly by AGW may contribute to the FAI generation. Keywords. Atmospheric composition and structure (Airglow and aurora), Ionosphere (Ionospheric irregularities, Mid-latitude ionosphere)

Description: Since October 2004, a Frequency Modulated–Continuous Wave (FM–CW) ionosonde chain along the magnetic meridian has been operating in Southeast Asia, in Kototabang (0.2° S, 100.3° E), Indonesia, Chumphon (10.7° N, 99.4° E), Thailand, and Chiang Mai (18.8° N, 98.9° E), Thailand. Variations in the virtual height of the bottomside of the F-region (h'F) at 2.5 MHz were analyzed, in order to study the day-to-day variability of plasma bubble occurrence for the periods of October 2004 and March–April 2005. When plasma bubbles were generated, h'F was enhanced at the three stations. However, even when h'F at the equatorial station, Chumphon, was largely enhanced, plasma bubbles were not generated when a noticeable north-south asymmetry of h'F existed. This asymmetry could be attributed to the transequatorial thermospheric wind. Our results show that the strong transequatorial thermospheric wind can suppress the plasma bubble generation and is one of the important factors which controls the day-to-day variability of plasma bubble occurrences.

Description: We have found that quasi-periodic (QP) echoes in the E region were well defined when medium scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) in the F region were present. The appearance and disappearance of the MSTIDs observed with the dense GPS receiver network are well correlated with the development and decay of QP echoes observed with the Middle-and-Upper atmosphere (MU) radar. Interferometric imaging of the QP echoes obtained using the MU radar shows that bands of echoing regions aligned northwest to southeast drift southwestward, and their wavefront and propagation direction are the same as those of MSTIDs. This result confirms the expectation of Hysell et al. (2002) who observed band structures in QP echoes by using the MU radar and suggested their relation to MSTIDs. We found observational evidence that the midlatitude E- and F regions are coupled through the geomagnetic field line, although we could not clearly ascertain which of the two regions is the source.

Description: An ionosonde network consisting of a meridional chain and an equatorial pair was established in the Southeast Asian area. Three of four ionosondes are along the magnetic meridian of 100° E; two are close to the magnetic conjugate points in Northern Thailand and West Sumatra, Indonesia, and the other is near the magnetic equator in the Malay Peninsula, Thailand. The fourth ionosonde is also near the magnetic equator in Vietnam but separated by about 6.3° towards east from the meridional chain. For a preliminary data analysis, nighttime ionospheric height variations at the three stations of the meridional chain were examined. The results demonstrate that the coordination of the network has a great potential for studying ionosphere/thermosphere dynamics. Through the assistance of model calculations, thermospheric neutral winds were inferred and compared with the HWM93 empirical thermospheric wind model. Higher-order wind variations that are not represented in the empirical model were found.

Description: Mid-latitude F-region field-aligned irregularities (FAIs) were studied by using the middle-and-upper atmosphere (MU) radar ultra-multi-channel system with the radar imaging technique. On 12 June 2006, F-region FAI echoes with a period of about one hour were observed intermittently. These echoes were found to be embedded in medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) observed as variations of total electron content (TEC). The echoes drifting away from (toward) the radar were observed in the depletion (enhancement) phase of the MSTID. The Doppler velocity of the echoes is consistent with the range rates in the the range-time-intensity (RTI) maps. Fine scale structures with a spatial scale of 10 km or less were found by the radar imaging analysis. Those structures with positive Doppler velocities (moving away from the radar) appeared to drift north- (up-) westward, and those with negative Doppler velocities south- (down-) eastward approximately along the wavefronts of the MSTID. FAIs with positive Doppler velocities filling TEC depletion regions were observed.

Description: The zonal structure of radar backscatter plumes associated with Equatorial Spread F (ESF), probably modulated by atmospheric gravity waves, has been investigated with the Equatorial Atmosphere Radar (EAR) in West Sumatra, Indonesia (0.20° S, 100.32° E; dip latitude 10.1° S) and the FM-CW ionospheric sounders on the same magnetic meridian as the EAR. The occurrence locations and zonal distances of the ESF plumes were determined with multi-beam observations with the EAR. The ESF plumes drifted eastward while keeping distances of several hundred to a thousand kilometers. Comparing the occurrence of the plumes and the F-layer uplift measured by the FM-CW sounders, plumes were initiated within the scanned area around sunset only, when the F-layer altitude rapidly increased. Therefore, the PreReversal Enhancement (PRE) is considered as having a zonal variation with the scales mentioned above, and this variation causes day-to-day variability, which has been studied for a long time. Modulation of the underlying E-region conductivity by gravity waves, which causes inhomogeneous sporadic-E layers, for example, is a likely mechanism to determine the scale of the PRE.

Description: During the SEEK 2 rocket campaign, ionograms were recorded every minute at the Yamagawa Radio Observatory at about 90km west of the region monitored by a VHF (very high frequency) coherent backscatter radar. Sporadic E-layer parameters, which include the critical (foEs) and blanketing (fbEs) frequencies, the layer height (h'Es), and the width of the range spread of sporadic E-traces, were compared with RTI (range-time-intensity) plots of VHF quasi-periodic (QP) and continuous coherent backscatter echoes. A close relationship was found between the appearance of QP echoes in the RTI plots and the level of spatial inhomogeneity in sporadic E plasma, signified here by the difference between foEs and fbEs. During QP echo events, foEs increased while fbEs decreased, so that the difference foEs-fbEs was enhanced, indicating the development of strong spatial structuring in electron density within a sporadic E-layer. On the other hand, increases in sporadic E range spreading also correlated with the occurrence of QP echoes but the degree of correlation varied from event to event. Continuous radar echoes were observed in association with low altitude sporadic E-layers, located well below 100 km and at times as low as 90 km. During the continuous echo events, both foEs and fbEs were less variable, and the difference foEs-fbEs was small and not as dynamic as in the QP echoes. On the other hand, the Es-layer spread intensified during continuous echoes, which means that some patchiness or corrugation in those low altitude layers is also necessary for the continuous backscatter echoes to take place.

Description: During the Sporadic E Experiment over Kyushu 2 (SEEK-2) campaign, field-aligned irregularities (FAIs) associated with midlatitude sporadic-E (Es) layers were observed with two backscatter radars, the Lower Thermosphere Profiler Radar (LTPR) and the Frequency Agile Radar (FAR), which were located 40 km apart in Tanegashima, Japan. We conducted observations of FAI echoes from 31 July to 24 August 2002, and the radar data were used to determine launch timing of two sounding rockets on 3 August 2002. Our comparison of echoes obtained by the LTPR and the FAR revealed that echoes often appeared at the FAR about 10min earlier than they did at the LTPR and were well correlated. This indicates that echoing regions drift with a southward velocity component that maintains the spatial shape. Interferometry observations that were conducted with the LTPR from 3 to 8 August 2002, revealed that the quasi-periodic (QP) striations in the Range-Time-Intensity (RTI) plots were due to the apparent motion of echoing regions across the radar beam including both main and side lobes. In most cases, the echo moved to the east-southeast at an almost constant altitude of 100–110 km, which was along the locus of perpendicularity of the radar line-of-sight to the geomagnetic field line. We found that the QP pattern on the RTI plot reflects the horizontal structure and motion of the (Es layer, and that echoing regions seemed to be in one-dimensionally elongated shapes or in chains of patches. Neutral wind velocities from 75 to 105 km altitude were simultaneously derived with meteor echoes from the LTPR. This is the first time-continuous simultaneous observation FAIs and neutral wind with interferometry measurements. Assuming that the echoing regions were drifting with an ambient neutral wind, we found that the echoing region was aligned east-northeast-west-southwest in eight out of ten QP echo events during the SEEK-2 campaign. A range rate was negative (positive), when a frontal structure of echoing regions elongated east-northeast-west-southwest drifts with southward (northward) neutral wind. Keywords. Ionosphere-atmosphere interactions; Ionospheric irregularities; Plasma waves and instabilities

Description: Nocturnal ionospheric height variations were analyzed along the meridian of 100° E by using ionosonde data. Two ionosondes were installed near the magnetic conjugate points at low latitudes, and the third station was situated near the magnetic equator. Ionospheric virtual heights were scaled every 15 min and vertical E×B drift velocities were inferred from the equatorial station. By incorporating the inferred equatorial vertical drift velocity, ionospheric bottom heights with the absence of wind were modeled for the two low-latitude conjugate stations, and the deviation in heights from the model outputs was used to infer the transequatorial meridional thermospheric winds. The results obtained for the September and March equinoxes of years 2004 and 2005, respectively, were compared, and a significant difference in the meridional wind was found. An oscillation with a period of approximately 7 h of the meridional wind existed in both the equinoxes, but its amplitude was larger in September as compared to that in March. When the equatorial height reached the maximum level due to the evening enhancement of the zonal electric field, the transequatorial meridional wind velocity reached approximately 10 and 40 m/s for the March and September equinoxes, respectively. This asymmetry of the ionosphere-thermosphere system was found to be associated with the previously reported equinoctial asymmetry of equatorial ionospheric irregularities; the probability for equatorial irregularities to occur is higher in March as compared to that in September at the Indian to Western Pacific longitudes. Numerical simulations of plasma bubble developments were conducted by incorporating the transequatorial neutral wind effect, and the results showed that the growth time (e-folding time) of the bubble was halved when the wind velocity changed from 10 to 40 m/s.