Low Latitude Aeronomy Study in Africa

Abstract

We have successfully completed the instrument construction. The unexpected issue with Ivory Coast import duty has prevented us from deploying the FPI in Ivory Coast as originally planned. However, by improvising we were able to construct a small FPI and have it deployed in Abuja, Nigeria and obtained thermospheric winds in West Africa for the first time. We are also able to simulate the R-T growth rate using the NCAR TIEGCM to study the longitudinal variations due to nonmigrating tides and solar effect on the R-T growth rate. These efforts will lay the foundation for future development of forecast capability of plasma bubbles. Due to delay in deploying the instruments, we were not able to validate the TIEGCM results with new observations from Africa. However, the new instrument in Africa will pave the way for new understanding of the equatorial aeronomy in Africa. Overall, the project is a good start for both modeling and observational efforts on equatorial aeronomy study in Africa. During a recent International Symposium on Equatorial Aeronomy in Ethiopia, we met many colleagues from Africa, who are greatly interested in the new observational results from Africa. We are looking forward to more collaboration in the future.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 09, 2016
Accession Number
AD1004769

Entities

People

  • Qian Wu

Organizations

  • University Corporation for Atmospheric Research

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Aeronomy
  • Africa
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Construction
  • Ethiopia
  • Fabry Perot Interferometers
  • Instability
  • Ivory Coast
  • Latitude
  • Observation
  • Observatories
  • Physics
  • Rayleigh Taylor Instability
  • Research Facilities
  • Simulations
  • West Africa

Readers

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics.
  • International Relations and Conflict Resolution
  • Space/Atmospheric Physics.