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1994

Ionospheric response

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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Ionospheric Response To The Sustained High Geomagnetic Activity During The March '89 Great Storm, Jan Josef Sojka, Robert W. Schunk, W. F. Denig Jan 1994

Ionospheric Response To The Sustained High Geomagnetic Activity During The March '89 Great Storm, Jan Josef Sojka, Robert W. Schunk, W. F. Denig

All Physics Faculty Publications

A simulation was conducted to model the high-latitude ionospheric response to the sustained level of high geomagnetic activity for the great magnetic storm period of March 13-14, 1989. The geomagnetic and solar activity indices and the DMSP F8 and F9 satellite data for particle precipitation and high-latitude convection were used as inputs to a time-dependent ionospheric model (TDIM). The results of the TDIM were compared to both DMSP plasma density data and ground-based total electron content (TEC) measurements for the great storm period as well as with earlier storm observations. The comparisons showed that the overall structure of the high-latitude …


Ionospheric Response To Traveling Convection Twin Vortices, Robert W. Schunk, Lie Zhu, Jan Josef Sojka Jan 1994

Ionospheric Response To Traveling Convection Twin Vortices, Robert W. Schunk, Lie Zhu, Jan Josef Sojka

All Physics Faculty Publications

Traveling convection twin vortices have been observed for several years. At ionospheric altitudes, the twin vortices correspond to spatially localized, transient structures embedded in a large‐scale background convection pattern. The convection vortices are typically observed in the morning and evening regions. They are aligned predominantly in the east‐west direction and have a horizontal extent of from 500–1000 km. Associated with the twin vortices are enhanced electric fields, particle precipitation, and an upward/downward field‐aligned current pair. Once formed, the twin vortex structures propagate in the tailward direction at speeds of several km/s, but they weaken as they propagate and only last …