New Observational Deployments for SEALION: Airglow Measurements Using All-Sky Imagers

Abstract

An airglow all sky imager (ASI) - a new monitoring instrument - is scheduled to be set up in February 2010 at Chiang Mai, Thailand, as part of the framework of the Southeast Asia Low-latitude Ionospheric Network (SEALION) being developed in the Southeast Asian region by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT). The ASI images airglow having an emission layer near the ionospheric F-layer in order to observe the two-dimensional structure and time evolution of such ionospheric disturbances as plasma bubbles.In Southeast Asia, the Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory (STE) of Nagoya University has been conducting ASI-based observations at Kototabang, Indonesia, ever since 2002. This paper provides detailed insight into the formation, growth and propagation of plasma bubbles as derived from observational data recorded using ASI at Kototabang and using SEALION ionosondes and GPS receivers. The functional requirements for another ASI to be installed and ASI based observation schemes are then discussed based on that insight.