The effects of ExB drifts on the equatorial ionosphere during extreme solar minimum

During the recent solar minimum, solar activity reached the lowest levels observed during the space age, resulting in a contracted ionosphere/thermosphere. This extremely low solar activity provides an unprecedented opportunity to understand the variability of the Earth's ionosphere. The average ExB drifts measured by the VEFI instrument on C/NOFS during this period are found to have several differences from the expected climatology based on previous solar minima, including downward drifts in the early afternoon and a weak to non-existent pre-reversal enhancement. Using SAMI2 as a computational engine, we investigate the effect of imposing an altered ExB climatology (as well as the contracting the thermosphere and reducing EUV ionization) for this new baseline ionosphere and compare the results to the average ion densities and composition measured by C/NOFS and NmF2/hmF2 measured by COSMIC.