Some effects in the upper atmosphere during geomagnetic storms

This paper examines the response of the high latitude ionosphere–thermosphere system during two intense geomagnetic storms. For that, data taken by instruments on board Dynamic Explorer 2 taken at heights of the F2-layer are used. These results represent a comparison of simultaneous measurements of storm disturbances in gas composition, electron density and temperature in common local time sectors. Documented are an increase in electron temperature and a decrease in electron density; increases both in electron temperature and electron density; and the correlation between electron density decreases and increases in the ratio N₂/O. It is noticed that the decrease in electron density is sometimes due to an increase in the molecular nitrogen density N₂ and not always is attributed both to the increase in N₂ density and the simultaneous decrease in the atomic oxygen density.     

Solar wind-Venus interaction affecting ionospheric electron density profile

The equilibrium electron density profile has been computed and compared with measured profiles by Venera 9 and Mariner 5 and 10. The computed electron density profile is seen to show discrepancies with measured data. The contribution of solar wind interaction induced convection to equilibrium electron density profile has been estimated. It is found that the convective processes are less important at lower altitudes, whereas at higher altitudes its contribution becomes dominant. The night side Venus ionosphere is formed due to the transport of O⁺ and impact ionization of neutral gases by suprathermal electrons. The discrepancies in theoretical and measured electron density profiles provide clear indication of additional energy source of solar wind origin.     

Model calculations of the dayside ionosphere of Venus

Model calculations of the dayside ionosphere of Venus are presented. The coupled continuity and momentum equations were solved for O₂⁺, O⁺, CO₂⁺, C⁺, N⁺, He⁺, and H⁺ density distributions, which are compared with measurements from the Pioneer Venus ion mass spectrometer. The agreement between the model results and the measurements is good for some species, such as O⁺, and rather poor for others, such as N⁺, indicating that our understanding of the dayside ion composition of Venus is incomplete. The coupled heat conduction equations for ions and electrons were solved and the calculated temperatures compared with Pioneer Venus measurements. It is shown that fluctuations in the magnetic field have a significant effect on the energy balance of the ionosphere.     

Ionosphere-plasmasphere electron fluxes at middle latitudes obtained from whistlers

985 whistlers observed between 1970 and 1975 in Hungary have been processed for equatorial plasmaspheric electron density and tube electron content above 1000 km (N_T). The hourly median value of N_T exhibits a diurnal variation with an amplitude of 1×10¹³ electrons/cm²-tube. 75 per cent of the electron flux values obtained from the time variation of N_T are lower than 6×10⁸ el cm^?2s^?1, while in some cases the fluxes reach a value as high as 3×10⁹ el cm^?2s^?1. Between 17 and 04 LT the dominant flux direction is toward the ionosphere. The data also indicate that the day to day filling of the plasmasphere after magnetic disturbances continues through several days without exhibiting saturation, with higher filling rates for lower values of average K_p.     

Positive ion composition and electron density in a combined auroral and NLC event

The positive ion composition and electron density were measured in the lower ionosphere above Kiruna in salvo A of CAMP (Cold Arctic Mesopause Project). The CAMP/P (S37/P) payload carrying a magnetic ion spectrometer, positive ion and electron probes, and propagation experiments was launched on 3 August 1982 2332 UT during extended Noctilucent Clouds (NLC) and auroral activities over Kiruna. The measured electron density was 5×10³cm^?3 at 80 km and 2.5×10⁵cm^?3 at 90 km. The increase of ion and electron densities in the D- and E-region during twilight was caused by precipitating auroral particles. The height distribution of the positive ions measured by the mass spectrometer in the mass range 19–280 amu is different from a winter flight with similar auroral conditions. Below 85.5 km proton hydrates H⁺(H₂O)₃ ? H⁺(H₂O)₈ were the dominant ions. The heaviest proton hydrates H⁺(H₂O)₇ and H⁺(H₂O)₈ were most abundant at 82–85.5 km, the altitude of visible NLC. Above 85.5 km O₂⁺ and NO⁺ became dominant. A small metal ion layer was observed between 90.5–93 km with a maximum ion density of 10% of the total positive ion density at 91 km altitude. The metal ion density disappeared within about a km below 90.5 km.     

Global comparison of the model results of GSM TIP with IRI for summer conditions

This paper presents the results of the numerical calculations thermosphere/ionosphere parameters which were executed with using of the Global Self-consistent Model of the Thermosphere, Ionosphere and Protonosphere (GSM TIP)and comparison of these results with empirically-based model IRI-2001. Model GSM TIP was developed in West Department of IZMIRAN and solves self-consistently the time-dependent, 3-D coupled equations of the momentum, energy and continuity for neutral particles (O₂, N₂, O), ions (O⁺, H⁺), molecular ions (M⁺) and electrons and largescale eletric field of the dynamo and magnetospheric origin in the range of height from 80 km to 15 Earth’s radii. The empirically derived IRI model describes the E and F regions of the ionosphere in terms of location, time, solar activity and season. Its output provides a global specification not only of N_e but also on the ion and electron temperatures and the ion composition. These two models represent a unique set of capabilities that reflect major differences in along with a substantial approaches of the first-principles model and global database model for the mapping ionosphere parameters. We focus on global distribution of the N_e, T_i, T_e and TEC for the one moment UT and fixed altitudes: 110 km, h_mF2, 300 km and 1000 km. The calculations were executed with using of GSM TIP and IRI models for August 1999, moderate solar activity and quiet geomagnetic conditions. Results present as the global differences between the IRI and GSM TIP models predictions. The discrepancies between model results are discussed.     

The N4,5 - OO Auger and “N3” N4,5O2,3 Coster-Kronig spectra of xenon induced by electron impact

The N_4,5OO Auger electron spectrum in the kinetic energy region (14–37) eV has been measured with high resolution at electron incident energies between 71 eV and 2019 eV. The Auger and satellite lines are assigned by comparison with previous literature data. Several states which correspond to the resonant Auger transitions from the 4d_{3/2, 5/2} 6p states are observed. The PCI effects on the N₅-O_2,3O_2,3(¹S₀) Auger peak when the incident electron energy approaches to the N₅ edge (67.55 eV) is investigated and it is found that the dependence of the energy shift on the excess energy, E_exc, is well represented by the function E_exc^β with β = (-1.40 ± 0.05). The ^“N₃^” N_4,5O_2,3 Coster-Kronig spectrum is measured at various electron incident energies. The assignments of the features are made in comparison with a similar spectrum from synchrotron radiation measured by Kivimäki et al. [J. Electron Spectrosc. Relat. Phenom. 1999, 101–103, 43–47]. The Auger spectrum in the kinetic energy regions (68–78) eV and (90–138) eV is observed for the first time in an electron impact experiment and a comparison is made with the photoionization experiment by Hikosaka et al. [Phys. Rev. A 2007, 76, 032708].     

Thermosphere–ionosphere response to a severe magnetic storm: A case study

This paper reports the response of the ionosphere–thermosphere system to an intense geomagnetic storm. For that, data taken by instruments on board Dynamic Explorer 2 at heights of the F2-layer (molecular nitrogen N₂ and atomic oxygen O compositions, neutral temperature Tg and electron density Ne) were used. The ionospheric response is characterized by a negative storm effect expanding from mid–high to low latitude. It is observed during this severe geomagnetic storm that negative effects were caused mainly by an increase in molecular nitrogen composition N₂ and almost no changes in atomic oxygen composition O.     

JIKIKEN electron beam measurements of the plasmapause

An electron beam (200-eV, 0.25 – 1-mA) emitted fromJapanese magnetosphere exploring satellite JIKIKEN (EXOS-B) has excited a number of plasma waves. Among them, f_UHF (upper hybrid frequency) and f_p (plasma wave) are most strongly excited and from them, the plasma density and the magnetic field strength can be known. Moreover, when an electron beam is emitted, the spacecraft is charged up positively. When the ambient plasma density is low, the spacecraft is charged up to the beam energy and most of electrons emitted return to the spacecraft. This is another plasma parameter indication in the magnetosphere. These two characteristics that is, the wave excitation and the spacecraft charge-up by the electron beam emission in space are used as very powerful tools for the diagnostics of plasma in the magnetosphere.     

Occurrence features of simultaneous H+- and He+-band EMIC emissions in the outer radiation belt

As an important loss mechanism of radiation belt electrons, electromagnetic ion cyclotron (EMIC) waves show up as three distinct frequency bands below the hydrogen (H⁺), helium (He⁺), and oxygen (O⁺) ion gyrofrequencies. Compared to O⁺-band EMIC waves, H⁺- and He⁺-band emissions generally occur more frequently and result in more efficient scattering removal of <～5?MeV relativistic electrons. Therefore, knowledge about the occurrence of these two bands is important for understanding the evolution of the relativistic electron population. To evaluate the occurrence pattern and wave properties of H⁺- and He⁺-band EMIC waves when they occur concurrently, we investigate 64 events of multi-band EMIC emissions identified from high quality Van Allen Probes wave data. Our quantitative results demonstrate a strong occurrence dependence of the multi-band EMIC emissions on magnetic local time (MLT) and L-shell to mainly concentrate on the dayside region of L?=?～4–6. We also find that the average magnetic field amplitude of H⁺-band waves is larger than that of He⁺-band waves only when L?<?4.5 and AE¹?<?300?nT, and He⁺-band emissions are more intense under all other conditions. In contrast to 5 events that have average H⁺-band amplitude over 2 nT, 19 events exhibit >2 nT He⁺-band amplitude, indicating that the He⁺-band waves can be more easily amplified than the H⁺-band waves under the same circumstances. For simultaneous occurrences of the two EMIC wave bands, their frequencies vary with L-shell and geomagnetic activity: the peak wave frequency of H⁺-band emissions varies between 0.25 and 0.8 f_cp with the average between 0.25 and 0.6 f_cp, while that of He⁺-band emissions varies between 0.03 and 0.23 f_cp with the average between 0.05 and 0.15 f_cp. These newly observed occurrence features of simultaneous H⁺- and He⁺-band EMIC emissions provide improved information to quantify the overall contribution of multi-band EMIC waves to the loss processes of radiation belt electrons.     

Influence of solar-geomagnetic disturbances on SABER measurements of 4.3 μm emission and the retrieval of kinetic temperature and carbon dioxide

Thermospheric infrared radiance at 4.3 μm is susceptible to the influence of solar-geomagnetic disturbances. Ionization processes followed by ion-neutral chemical reactions lead to vibrationally excited NO⁺ (i.e., NO⁺(v)) and subsequent 4.3 μm emission in the ionospheric E-region. Large enhancements of nighttime 4.3 μm emission were observed by the TIMED/SABER instrument during the April 2002 and October–November 2003 solar storms. Global measurements of infrared 4.3 μm emission provide an excellent proxy to observe the nighttime E-region response to auroral dosing and to conduct a detailed study of E-region ion-neutral chemistry and energy transfer mechanisms. Furthermore, we find that photoionization processes followed by ion-neutral reactions during quiescent, daytime conditions increase the NO⁺ concentration enough to introduce biases in the TIMED/SABER operational processing of kinetic temperature and CO₂ data, with the largest effect at summer solstice. In this paper, we discuss solar storm enhancements of 4.3 μm emission observed from SABER and assess the impact of NO⁺(v) 4.3 μm emission on quiescent, daytime retrievals of Tk/CO₂ from the SABER instrument.     

Rotational constants of linear and/or bent Cn+1H and CnN(n = 1–6): A DFT study

The geometries, dipole moments, and rotational constants for the linear and/or bent cations, C_n+1H⁺ and C_nN⁺(n = 1–6), were studied by the B3LYP method with the modest basis sets. For C_nH⁺(n = odd; 3, 5, 7) and C_nN⁺(n = even; 2, 4, 6), the theoretical rotational constants (B_es) of closed-shell singlet C₃H⁺, C₅H⁺, C₇H⁺, CCN⁺, C₄N⁺, and C₆N⁺ were calculated to be about 11,244, 2420, 885.2, 11,970, 2439, and 880.8 MHz, respectively. By contrast, the triplets are stable than the corresponding singlets for C_nH⁺(n = odd; 2, 4, 6) and C_nN⁺(n = even; 3, 5) except CN⁺.     

Results of measurements of the response of a delta-doped CCD to neutral and charged particle beams

We report the measurements of the response of a delta-doped Charge Coupled Device (CCD) in imaging mode to beams of charged and neutral particles. That is, the detector imaged the incident beam over its 1024 × 1024 pixels, integrating the number of particles counted in each pixel during the exposure period. In order to count individual particles the exposure time would have had to be reduced considerably compared to the typical ?5 s used in these studies. Our CCD thus operated in a different manner than do conventional particle detectors such as the CEM and MCP that normally are used in a particle counting mode. The measurements were carried out over an energy range from 0.8 to 30 keV. The species investigated include H, H⁺, He⁺, N⁺, N₂⁺, and Ar⁺. The energy and ion mass covered wider ranges than previous measurements for the CCD. The results of these measurements show, as in the case of the previous measurement, for a given ion the CCD response increases with energy and for a given particle energy the response decreases with increasing mass of the particle. These results are in agreement with predictions of the theory of the range of ions in solids. The results also show the possibility for the application of the delta doped CCD as a detector for low energy particle measurements for space plasma physics applications.     

The glow of the night ionosphere due to energetic ion beams

This paper discusses photometric measurements made of the ionospheric excitation of the line $\text{λ = 5577}\text{A}\text{?}$ at the time of electron beam injection from a rocket into the Earth's ionosphere. The gradual increase of the glow intensity per impulse occurs due to accumulation of the energy of excited states of N₂(A³Σ⁺_u) and O(′S) during their lifetimes. The large disturbed zone in the near-rocket environment (size >500 m) is connected via the interaction of ions accelerated in the rocket potential field with ionospheric components. The glow intensity modulation is observed at a height of ～98 km during the electron beam injection simultaneously with the ignition of the beam-plasma discharge (BPD). The intensity minima are explained by a decrease of the energy of accelerated ions due to effective neutralization of the rocket body by the BPD plasma. The height profile of the glow intensity revealed two maxima at heights of ～103 km and ～115 km. The second maximum (at ～115 km) indicates that, at these heights, both collision and collision-free mechanisms of accelerated ion energy transport to ionospheric components exist.     

Ion cyclotron waves observed near the plasmapause

Pc2 electromagnetic ion cyclotron waves at 0.1 Hz, near the oxygen cyclotron frequency, have been observed by ISEE-1 and -2 between L = 7.6 − 5.8 on an inbound near equatorial pass in the dusk sector. The waves occurred in a thick plasmapause of width ⋍ 1 R_e and penetrated ⋍ 1 R_e into the plasmasphere. Wave onset was accompanied by significant increases in the thermal (0–100 eV) He⁺ and the warm (0.1–16 keV/e) O⁺ and He⁺ heavy ion populations. Wave polarization is predominantly left-handed with propagation almost parallel to the ambient magnetic field, and the spectral slot and polarization reversal predicted by multicomponent cold plasma propagation theory are identified in the wave data. The results are considered an example of wave-particle interactions occurring during the outer plasmasphere refilling process at the time of the substorm recovery phase.     

Charging of dust grains by anisotropic solar wind multi-component plasma

In this paper we study the charging process of small grain particles by anisotropic multi-component solar wind plasmas (electrons, protons and heavy ions), versus two-component (electron/proton) plasmas. We are focusing attention on the important characteristics of the charging process, namely the charging time, floating potential and current content as functions of plasma parameters such as He⁺⁺/H⁺ (α/p) number density and T_α/T_p temperature ratios of alpha particles to protons, as well as plasma streaming velocity v₀. Measured statistical properties of solar wind plasma parameters at 1 AU show considerable variations in α/p-temperature ratios from 1 to 10, in α/p-number density ratio from 0.01 to 0.35, as well as in values of streaming velocity v₀ from 200 km/s to 1000 km/s and more. Periods of these variations could last for several days each, leading to significant variability in the charging process, according to newly derived general analytical expressions. Numerical calculations performed for protons/alphas plasmas showed large disparity in the charging characteristics. For example, in anisotropic plasma, grain charging time varies up to 90% depending on α/p-particles temperature and number density ratios, whereas changes in floating potential are up to 40%. In contrast, in isotropic plasma, charging characteristic for grains do not change very much for the same plasma parameters variations, with charging time varying about 12% and floating potential only varying about 4%. It is also shown that in highly anisotropic plasma, with all ballistic electrons and ions, dust grains could not hold their charges, and characteristic discharged time is calculated. We note that the analysis is equally applicable to any sized body immersed in solar wind plasma.     

Feasibility of developing an ionospheric E-region electron density storm model using TIMED/SABER measurements

We present a new technique for improving ionospheric models of nighttime E-region electron densities under geomagnetic storm conditions using TIMED/SABER measurements of broadband 4.3 μm limb radiance. The response of E-region electron densities to geomagnetic activity is characterized by SABER-derived NO⁺(v) 4.3 μm Volume Emission Rates (VER). A storm-time E-region electron density correction factor is defined as the ratio of storm-enhanced NO⁺(v) VER to a quiet-time climatological average NO⁺(v) VER, which will be fit to a geomagnetic activity index in a future work. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the feasibility of our technique in two ways. One, we compare storm-to-quiet ratios of SABER-derived NO⁺(v) VER with storm-to-quiet ratios of electron densities measured by Incoherent Scatter Radar. Two, we demonstrate that NO⁺(v) VER can be parameterized by widely available geomagnetic activity indices. The storm-time correction derived from NO⁺(v) VER is applicable at high-latitudes.