Publication Date:
2020-12-03
Description:
A model is presented of the growth rate of turbulently generated irregularities in
the electron concentration of northern polar cap plasma patches. The turbulence is
generated by the short‐term fluctuations in the electric field imposed on the polar cap
ionosphere by electric field mapping from the magnetosphere. The model uses an
ionospheric imaging algorithm to specify the state of the ionosphere throughout. The
growth rates are used to estimate mean amplitudes for the irregularities, and these mean
amplitudes are compared with observations of the scintillation indices S4 and s by
calculating the linear correlation coefficients between them. The scintillation data
are recorded by GPS L1 band receivers stationed at high northern latitudes. A total of
13 days are analyzed, covering four separate magnetic storm periods. These results are
compared with those from a similar model of the gradient drift instability (GDI) growth
rate. Overall, the results show better correlation between the GDI process and the
scintillation indices than for the turbulence process and the scintillation indices. Two
storms, however, show approximately equally good correlations for both processes,
indicating that there might be times when the turbulence process of irregularity formation
on plasma patches may be the controlling one.
Description:
Published
Description:
A04310
Description:
1.7. Osservazioni di alta e media atmosfera
Description:
3.9. Fisica della magnetosfera, ionosfera e meteorologia spaziale
Description:
JCR Journal
Description:
restricted
Keywords:
ionospheric irregularities
;
scintillations
;
Gradient Drift Instability
;
01. Atmosphere::01.02. Ionosphere::01.02.04. Plasma Physics
;
01. Atmosphere::01.02. Ionosphere::01.02.07. Scintillations
;
05. General::05.01. Computational geophysics::05.01.03. Inverse methods
Repository Name:
Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV)
Type:
article
