Case studies of coupling between the E and F regions during unstable sporadic-E conditions

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Read Full Article (file size: 900571 bytes) Cited by JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH, VOL. 108, NO. A12, 1447, doi:10.1029/2003JA009955, 2003 Case studies of coupling between the E and F regions during unstable sporadic-E conditions Michael C. Kelley School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA Christos Haldoupis Physics Department, University of Crete, Iraklion, Greece Michael J. Nicolls School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA Jonathan J. Makela Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC, USA Anna Belehaki Institute for Space Applications and Remote Sensing, National Observatory of Athens, Palaia Penteli, Greece Sergei Shalimov Institute of Physics of the Earth, Moscow, Russia Victor K. Wong School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA Abstract Simultaneous F-region airglow, E-region coherent-scatter radar, and ionosonde observations were made in Greece during the summer sporadic-E season in 2002. In this paper we report on two case studies during which patchy sporadic-E layers were accompanied by midlatitude spread F, coherent VHF radar echoes (including two-stream echoes), and traveling ionospheric disturbances registered by the airglow instrument. We argue that these events give strong evidence that polarization electric fields are built up in the E region and are mapped upward to the F region, creating rising and falling regions in the bottomside plasma. The resulting structure creates conditions for midlatitude spread F, as detected by the ionosonde. This correlation between patchy sporadic E and midlatitude spread F is further supported in a companion paper. Upward coupling of this sort is particularly efficient in regions of F-region plasma uplift and airglow depletion, since the F-region Pedersen conductivity is low which reduces the electrical load on the E-region generator. Received 24 March 2003; accepted 16 September 2003; published 23 December 2003. Index Terms: 2435 Ionosphere: Ionospheric disturbances; 2443 Ionosphere: Midlatitude ionosphere; 2439 Ionosphere: Ionospheric irregularities; 2437 Ionosphere: Ionospheric dynamics; 2411 Ionosphere: Electric fields (2712). Read Full Article (file size: 900571 bytes) Cited by Citation: Kelley, M. C., C. Haldoupis, M. J. Nicolls, J. J. Makela, A. Belehaki, S. Shalimov, and V. K. Wong (2003), Case studies of coupling between the E and F regions during unstable sporadic-E conditions, J. Geophys. Res., 108(A12), 1447, doi:10.1029/2003JA009955. Copyright 2003 by the American Geophysical Union.

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