LITES/Group-C Observations of the Nighttime Ionosphere during May 2017
Abstract
The Limb-Imaging Ionospheric and Thermospheric Extreme-Ultraviolet Spectrograph (LITES) and the GPS Radio Occultation and Ultraviolet Photometry - Collocated (Group-C) are currently flying on the International Space Station (ISS) as demonstration experiments aboard the U.S. Department of Defense Space Test Program-Houston 5 (STP-H5) experiment pallet that launched on 19 February 2017. The nadir-viewing ultraviolet photometer that is part of the Group-C experiment is an upgraded version of the Tiny Ionospheric Photometers (TIP) that flew on the Constellation Observation System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC-1 also known as FORMOSAT-3). LITES is a extreme- and far-ultraviolet single-element imaging spectrograph that views the atmospheric limb in the orbital plane in the wake of the ISS. During May 2017, the LITES and TIP instruments made coincident observations of the nighttime ionosphere globally, measuring both vertical profiles of 91.1 and 135.6 nm emissions and horizontal gradients of 135.6 nm, which principally derive from radiative recombination of oxygen ions (O+) and electrons. The LITES instrument observed tangent altitudes of ~100-350 km, while the TIP viewed downward beneath the ISS. We present new tomographic inversions of these data including comparisons to ionosonde measurements made during serendipitous overflights and to the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2019
- Bibcode:
- 2019AGUFMSA13B3244D
- Keywords:
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- 0355 Thermosphere: composition and chemistry;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE;
- 0358 Thermosphere: energy deposition;
- ATMOSPHERIC COMPOSITION AND STRUCTURE;
- 3369 Thermospheric dynamics;
- ATMOSPHERIC PROCESSES;
- 7949 Ionospheric storms;
- SPACE WEATHER