Characteristics of ionospheric plasma drifts as obtained from Doppler ionosonde measurements at magnetic equator over Indian sector
Abstract
We present equatorial plasma drifts over Tirunelveli (8.73°N, 77.70°E; Dip 0.5°N), an equatorial site over Indian region using Doppler interferometry technique of Canadian Advanced Digital Ionosonde (CADI) system. In the Doppler interferometry technique, it is possible to infer three dimensional bulk motion of the scatterers as reflected from the ionosphere at selected frequencies using spaced receivers arranged in mag. east-west, north-south directions. Spectral phases and amplitudes are calculated using FFT to identify the Doppler frequencies and their drifts. This technique produces reliable drifts when sharp refractive index gradients exists which produces higher scattering sources. The vertical drifts so obtained are compared with same drifts from Digisonde at Trivandrum. After having compared with Digisonde drifts, we studied the temporal and seasonal variability of these drifts during quiet periods for the year 2012. It is seen that vertical drifts exhibited equinoctial maximum in the Pre-Reversal-Enhancement (PRE) followed by winter and summer respectively. A comparison of these vertical drifts is made with drifts obtained from (a) virtual height measured at 4 MHz and (b) Fejer drift model. The comparison suggests that Doppler vertical drifts are relatively higher as compared to the drifts obtained from model and virtual height. However, the correlation seems to be good around evening PRE times. The zonal drifts, on the other hand, showed westward drifts during daytime with mean drifts of ~250 m/s, while they are eastward during nighttime with mean drifts of ~150 m/s. These drifts seems to be higher as compared to zonal drifts obtained in the South American sector. However, the zonal drifts so obtained showed good correlation with Equatorial Electrojet (EEJ) strength suggesting zonal drifts are influenced by E region drifts during daytime in agreement with Woodman et al., 2013 paper. The magnitude of these drifts are comparable to other independent observations. However, nighttime drifts seems to follow the F region dynamo. Since the ionosonde drifts presented here are of comparable magnitude to other observations, continuous monitoring of these drifts may be useful to understand the ionospheric variability.
- Publication:
-
41st COSPAR Scientific Assembly
- Pub Date:
- July 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016cosp...41E1698S