PhotonIcs and Electromagnetics Research Symposium,
also known as Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium
PIERS Proceedings
Published: 2015-07-09
Space Weather Variations and Corpuscular Ionization
By
Proceedings of 2015 Photonics & Electromagnetics Research Symposium, Prague, July 6 - 9,Page(s)2576-2579
Abstract
Space weather manifestations in the northwest Russia are analyzed from the iono- spheric images reconstructed by low-orbiting (LO) satellite radio tomography (RT). The Russian LORT chain installed in a wide latitudinal sector from Sochi to Svalbard approximately along the geomagnetic meridian and parallel to the descending ground tracks of the Russian naviga- tional low-orbiting satellites. The two-dimensional (2D) distributions of electron density in the vertical plane above the chain reflect the response of the ionosphere to different space weather events. The geomagnetic storms belong to the most striking phenomena impacting the space weather. A variety of complicated ionospheric patterns resulting from the interplay between different space weather factors were revealed by LORT during the geomagnetic storms. Some features are common of the most storms, and the others are event-specific traits. The LORT im- ages of the disturbed ionosphere demonstrate plasma distributions with numerous enhancements and depletions on various scales, rapid rearrangement of the ionospheric structures, uplifting of the ionospheric F-layer, variations in the position and shape of the main ionization trough, waves and wavelike disturbances, increased ionization in the night-time ionosphere, etc.. Many LORT images during the space weather perturbations show highly structured ionospheric patterns with isolated plasma irregularities ranging in size from a few tens to a few hundred km. The character of these features suggests their probable link to corpuscular ionization. We compared a series of such LORT images with the DMSP data on ionizing particle fluxes observed within a reasonably narrow band (∼ 300 km) along the RT chain. Corpuscular injections widely vary from a few to ten degrees along the latitude. Our comparison revealed the cases when the spatial pattern of ionization observed by LORT qualitatively agreed with the latitudinal profile of the fluxes of ionizing particles.
Citation
Elena S. Andreeva, Vyacheslav Evgenievich Kunitsyn, E. D. Tereshchenko, M. A. Kozharin, and M. O. Nazarenko, "Space Weather Variations and Corpuscular Ionization," Proceedings of 2015 Photonics & Electromagnetics Research Symposium, Prague, July 6 - 9,Page(s)2576-2579
References