A study of 3D structure of nighttime electron density enhancement in the mid-latitude ionosphere by GPS tomography

The mid-latitude summer nighttime anomaly (MSNA) is a feature that the nighttime electron density larger than that in the daytime mid-latitude ionosphere. This anomaly was first detected in the southern hemisphere five decades ago and observed in the northern hemisphere recently by ionosondes and satellites. Previous studies presented the electron density structure of MSNA by using COSMIC occultation data and found that MSNA is clearly seen around 300 km altitude during local summer. However, due to lack of observation, the day-to-day variation of MSNA was not investigated. A GPS tomography method by SPEL of Kyoto University using the total electron content (TEC) data measured by the ground-based GPS receiver network is employed in this study. The wide coverage and continuous observation of GPS receivers are suitable for investigating the spatial and day-to-day variations of ionospheric electron densities. The algorithm of the GPS tomography developed by SPEL of Kyoto University use a constraint condition that the gradient of election density tends to be smooth in the horizontal direction and steep in the vicinity of the F2 peak, instead of inputting the initial conditions. Therefore, the algorithm is independent of any ionospheric and plasmaspheric electron density distribution models. The dense ground-based GPS receiver network around European region is used to study the three dimensional (3D) structure of MSNA with GPS tomography. Results show that the MSNA usually appear around the geomagnetic mid-latitude region during local summer nighttime. The feature of MSNA is most obvious at the ionospheric F2-peak altitudes. The result also shows a day-to-day variation in the formation of MSNA, in terms of the occurrence time, intensity, and spatial extent. The tomographic results are compared with the ionosondes, satellites, and radar measurements. A theoretical model simulation, SAMI2, is also used to further discuss the mechanism of MSNA. The comparison with other observation data as well as the model simulation results suggest that the equatorial neutral winds play the most important role in the formation of MSNA.