Longitudinal Ionospheric Variations in the bottomside Equatoral regions (LIVE)
Abstract
Approved for Public ReleaseThe proposal titled #Longitudinal Ionospheric Variations in the bottomside Equatorial region (LIVE)# is designed to increase our understanding of the equatorial ionosphere below the F-region peak. Our specific project will provide important observational information essential for improving the state of the art in operational space weather effects modeling. Model development requires high quality observational data for use in assimilation, testing, and validation, and our results will support allthree tasks. Particular emphasis will be given to observational information on equatorial processes critical to Naval research and operation. The proposed Haystack work in LIVE will continue to extend our previous results for the equatorial region. We will specifically focus on comparing and contrasting the equatorial ionosphere observed in the American sector to that in the South East Asia (SEA) sector. Our primary goal is to develop improved ionospheric empirical climatology models in the equatorial region. The four focus areas of this proposal involve 1) the increased GNSS data collection and processing of observations in the equatorial region, 2) the development of ionospheric climatological specification using NmF2 observations from ionosondes and GNSS TEC observations, 3) scientific studies involving NmF2 and TEC day-to-day variability and traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) in the equatorial regions, and 4) scientific studies of longitudinal differences in ionospheric disturbances associated with the state of the stratosphericpolar vortex. The overall goal of the LIVE research is to improve the state of the art in modeling space weather effects for operations in the equatorial regions.The SEA region will be a specific area of focus in this proposal. For the SEA region overall, we willmake a substantial effort to collect and process all GNSS data available and provide the extended TEC coverage that this enables tothe NSF funded CEDAR Madrigal database. Work on the modeling of TEC and NmF2 in the equatorial region will continue. TEC and NmF2 models will be produced for certain set equatorial locations. Our recent work demonstrated the importance of better specification of solar flux ionization with a new solar flux proxy based on the FISM2 model and we will implement this for the local models of NmF2 and TEC. The overall effort of the additional work will be to provide a better specification of nominal TEC and foF2, and their expected variations with solar flux, season, and local time. The project will also try to identify the location and variability of the equatorial anomaly in the SEA region, and contrast it with the behavior in the American sector.The LIVE proposal will conduct the following scientific studies involving the equatorial ionosphere. LIVE research will try (1) to characterize the morphology of equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) as represented in monthly average TEC data, and to study EIA longitudinal variations with focuses on Asian sectors and American sectors; (2) to investigate the day-to-day variability in TEC and NmF2 in equatorial regions, and examine thelongitudinal differences of variability in these key ionospheric parameters; (3) to investigate equatorial traveling ionospheric disturbances, including their longitudinal dependency; and (4) to investigate the ionospheric responses to polar vortex activity at different intensity levels, and examine their longitudinal dependency.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 24, 2024
- Source ID
- N000142412122
Entities
People
- Anthea J. Coster
Organizations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy