| タイトル | Altitude Variation of the Plasmapause Signature in the Main Ionospheric Trough |
| 本文（外部サイト） | http://hdl.handle.net/2060/20110007238 |
| 著者（英） | Grebowsky, Joseph M.; Webb, Phillip A.; Benson, Robert F.; Truhlik, Vladimir; Bilitza, Dieter |
| 著者所属（英） | NASA Goddard Space Flight Center |
| 発行日 | 2009-01-01
2009 |
| 言語 | eng |
| 内容記述 | The projection of the plasmapause magnetic-field lines to low altitudes, where the light-ion chemistry is dominated by O(+), tends to occur near the minimum electron density in the main (midlatitude) electron density trough at night. With increasing attitude in the trough, where H(+) emerges as the dominant iota on the low-latitude boundary, we have found cases where the plasmapause field lines are located on the sharp low-Latitude side of the trough as expected if this topside ionosphere H(+) distribution varies in step with the plasmapause gradient in the distant plasmasphere. These conclusions are based on near-equatorial crossings of the plasmapause (corresponding to the steep gradient in the dominant species H(+) by the Explorer-45 satellite as determined from electric-field measurements by Maynard and Cauffman in the early 1970s and ISIS-2 ionospheric topside-sounder measurements. The former data have now been converted to digital form and made available at http://nssdcftp.gsfc.nasa.gov. The latter provide samples of nearly coincident observations of ionospheric main trough crossings near the same magnetic-field lines of the Explorer 45-determined equatorial plasmapause. The ISIS-2 vertical electron density profiles are used to infer where the F-region transitions from an O(+) to a H(+) dominated plasma through the main trough boundaries. |
| NASA分類 | Geophysics |
| 権利 | Copyright, Distribution as joint owner in the copyright |
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