Comparison of DMSP SSIES Density and Temperature Measurements With Ground-Based Incoherent Scatter Radar Data

We have compared electron density and temperature data, measured aboard the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft, against POLITE campaign data collected by the Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar. The POLITE data span the period between February 1996 (near solar minimum) and July 2000 (near solar maximum). Following the work of Sultan and Rich [2000], we averaged the DMSP data within a five-degree circle of Millstone Hill, and averaged the corresponding radar data within +/-30 minutes of the satellite overflight time. Our study revealed that the average electron density difference between DMSP and Millstone data exceeds 20 percent, which is statistically significant compared to the published DMSP topside ionospheric plasma monitor (SSIES) instrument accuracy. Further, DMSP density values are typically lower than the corresponding radar measurements; this negative bias is largest near solar minimum. Conversely, DMSP electron temperature values are an average 23 percent higher than the radar-derived temperature. This difference is statistically significant compared to both the DMSP and radar errors. As with the electron density, the bias lessens toward solar maximum. This temperature bias appears to decrease as the DMSP zenith angle increases, and this suggests the possibility of increased photoelectron contamination of the Langmuir probe for smaller zenith angles. Apart from this, however, the root cause(s) for these density and temperature differences remain under study.