The thermosphere as a sink of magnetospheric energy: A review of recent observations of dynamics

The study of the dynamics and thermodynamics of the earth's upper atmosphere has made significant progress over the past few years owing to the availability of new global-scale data sets from the Dynamics Explorer satellites. The thermospheric wind and temperature fields at high latitude have been observed to depend strongly on forcing processes of magnetospheric origin. A key momentum source is due to the drag effect of ions convecting in response to electric fields mapped down on the ionosphere from magnetospheric boundary regions. Likewise, an important heat source derives from Joule or frictional dissipation due to ion/neutral difference velocities governed, in turn, by magnetospheric forcing. In this paper we discuss the progress made over the last 2–3 years initiated by the new satellite measurements and we review published data on ion and neutral motions in the context of the energy and momentum coupling between the magnetosphere and the ionosphere/neutral upper atmosphere. The observations indicate the existence of a “flywheel effect” which implies direct feedback from the neutral thermosphere to the magnetosphere via the release of energy and momentum previously “stored” in the neutral thermosphere.     

地基行星大气掩星观测资料流程和数据整理

在中国火星探测萤火一号(YH-1)计划中, 包括了地基掩星观测反演火星大气的科研任务. 观测资料整理是反演流程的第一步. 本文描述了地基火星大气掩星观测处理软件系统的观测数据流程和观测资料整理模块,并详细介绍了观测资料整理模块的结构和功能, 其中包括时间系统转换、历表插值、坐标系变换、信号时延改正以及掩星平面建立. 利用行星数据系统公布的火星快车无线电科学数据和由SPICE得到的地球、火星历表以及火星快车的轨道数据, 结合本文的算法, 得到了一些实验结果.      

Some Investigations on the Ionosphere during 2012–2014 in China

In this national biannual report, we will outline some recent progresses in ionospheric studies conducted by Chinese scientists since 2012. The mentioned aspects include: the solar activity control of the ionosphere; couplings between the ionosphere, lower atmosphere and plasmasphere;ionospheric climatology and disturbances; ionospheric irregularities and scintillation; models, data assimilation and simulations; unusual phenomena of the ionosphere; possible seismic signatures presented in ionospheric observations, and some methodology progresses. These progresses will enhance our ability to observe the ionosphere, provide more reasonable understanding about the states of the ionosphere and underlying fundamental processes, and stimulate ionospheric modeling, forecasting and related applications.     

Variations of quasi-electrostatic fields and ionosphere potential above lightning discharge at equatorial latitudes

Lightning discharges by thunderstorms cause generation of electromagnetic pulses and of quasi-electrostatic fields (QESF) in the atmosphere above, which occur in different time-scales. QESF penetrate into the mesosphere and the lower ionosphere where they are big enough to generate considerable electric charge transfer there and, in some cases, to cause red sprites. These processes may have an important contribution to the global atmospheric electric circuit. Significant transient variations of the ionospheric potential above the thunderstorm take place as well. QESF depend on the atmospheric conductivity and in the ionosphere they are affected also by its anisotropy determined by geomagnetic field orientation. QESF after a lightning discharge are investigated theoretically in this work in the case of equatorial latitudes (by horizontal geomagnetic field), where thunderstorms are important contributors to the global circuit. Results for DC electric fields in the lower equatorial ionosphere above a thundercloud obtained by earlier models demonstrate some specific features of the spatial distribution of these fields, which appear due to geomagnetic field orientation. Thus, the electric fields can be shifted by tens or more kilometers to east of the cloud charge region; also their horizontal scale is much bigger than in the case of middle latitudes. Here, a presence of similar specific features of quasi-electrostatic field distributions and ionospheric potential variations caused by a lightning stroke is studied. A situation when no secondary ionization is generated is considered. A model based on the Maxwell equations for potential electric fields is proposed. Computations of QESF in the middle atmosphere and of the ionospheric potential variations are provided as dependent on conductivity and its anisotropy in D-region. The obtained results for the ionosphere show that the electric fields in the equatorial lower ionosphere are comparable to these formed in the case of middle latitudes. However, their horizontal scales are much bigger and depend on conductivity profiles. Similar features are valid also for the ionospheric potential variations and for their horizontal scales.     

非相干雷达探测低电离层的结果分析

位于波多黎各的Arecibo非相干雷达可以获得低电离层电子和离子密度, 利用此非相干雷达数据对中纬度低电离层的运动特征进行研究. 得到了电子密度随时间和高度的变化 情况, 结果显著呈现出周日变化特征, 并分析了电子密度随高度的变化规律. 进一步对数据进行频谱分析, 深入研究低电离层电子密度的周日变化效应. 得到电子密度的高度剖面, 发现从F层底部到E层有明显的等离子体沉降. 低电离层的层结构特征及电子密度变化表明, 在该区域还存在不同程度的等离子体扰动, 由此对低电离层的作用因素 进行分析, 认为大气潮汐或声重波可能对低电离层产生扰动, 即低电离层与大气存在一定程度的耦合作用.      

空间物理学科发展战略研究

空间物理学是人类进入空间时代后迅速发展起来的一门新兴的多学科交叉的前沿基础学科。其将太阳和太阳风控制的日球层空间作为一个系统，研究太阳/太阳风与行星/彗星的上层大气、电离层、磁层乃至星际介质之间的相互作用。空间物理学从本质上讲是一门实验科学，空间物理探测是空间物理学发展的基础。进入新世纪，随着空间基础设施和人类高技术活动的日益频繁，空间物理学进入新的发展阶段，强调科学与应用的密切结合。近年来，空间物理学取得了一系列重要进展。本文对接国家自然科学基金委地球科学部“宜居地球-地球系统科学”的顶层战略设计，梳理总结近年来空间物理各学科发展动态和趋势，凝练中国空间物理学未来发展的重点领域，优化学科布局，推进空间物理各学科的高质量发展。     

观测站稀疏地区的WAAS电离层时延网格修正算法

在改进的广域增强系统电离层时延网格算法的基础上，给出了针对观测量比较少的地区比较适用的电离层时延网格修正算法，并通过模拟数据和GPS实测数据与原方法进行了分析比较．结果表明，在观测站稀疏的情况下，本文的计算方法模式的精度比原方法有较大的提高．     

Lower ionosphere response to external forcing: A brief review

There are two ways of external forcing of the lower ionosphere, the region below an altitude of about 100 km: (1) From above, which is directly or indirectly of solar origin. (2) From below, which is directly or indirectly of atmospheric origin. The external forcing of solar origin consists of two general factors – solar ionizing radiation variability and space weather. The solar ionization variability consist mainly from the 11-year solar cycle, the 27-day solar rotation and solar flares, strong flares being very important phenomenon in the daytime lower ionosphere due to the enormous increase of the solar X-ray flux resulting in temporal terminating of MF and partly LF and HF radio wave propagation due to heavy absorption of radio waves. Monitoring of the sudden ionospheric disturbances (SIDs – effects of solar flares in the lower ionosphere) served in the past as an important tool of monitoring the solar activity and its impacts on the ionosphere. Space weather effects on the lower ionosphere consist of many different but often inter-related phenomena, which govern the lower ionosphere variability at high latitudes, particularly at night. The most important space weather phenomenon for the lower ionosphere is strong geomagnetic storms, which affect substantially both the high- and mid-latitude lower ionosphere. As for forcing from below, it is caused mainly by waves in the neutral atmosphere, i.e. planetary, tidal, gravity and infrasonic waves. The most important and most studied waves are planetary and gravity waves. Another channel of the troposphere coupling to the lower ionosphere is through lightning-related processes leading to sprites, blue jets etc. and their ionospheric counterparts. These phenomena occur on very short time scales. The external forcing of the lower ionosphere has observationally been studied using predominantly ground-based methods exploiting in various ways the radio wave propagation, and by sporadic rocket soundings. All the above phenomena are briefly mentioned and some of them are treated in more detail.     

Model for the VLF/LF radio signal anomalies formation associated with earthquakes

The influence of quasi-static electric field of seismic origin on the characteristics of the internal gravity waves (IGWs) in the Earth’s ionosphere is considered. The electric field in the ionosphere arises due to the injection of charged aerosols into the atmosphere, formation of an EMF in the near Earth atmosphere and perturbation of the conductive electric current in the global electric circuit. Amplification of the electric current in seismic zone is accompanied by the formation of perturbation of the lower ionosphere that affects the amplitude and phase of VLF/LF signals. The action of the electric field on the IGWs is connected with the appearance of the Ampere’s force in the ionosphere. In the spectral range of these waves the latter acts on the neutral component of the ionosphere plasma. As the result of this interaction the ionosphere starts to support the discrete spectrum of oscillations. Periods of their maximums increase as numbers of natural sequence. The existence of such peculiarities of the waves in the ionosphere is confirmed by observations.     

雷暴云准静电场和夜间低电离层的电离

用点电荷模型计算雷暴云突然放电后形成的准静电后形成的准静电场随高度的分布，以E/N（E的电场大小，N为大气密度）为输入参量，在一定条件下，对Boltzmann方程数值求解，计算电离层电子数密度的扰动。计算结果表明，在约70-90km之间，在约放电后的10ms内，准静电场大于中性大气的击穿电场，将引起大气的雪崩电离，从而引起夜间低电离层电子密度的显著增加，但这种电子密度的增加是暂的，在很短的时期内就恢复到平静时的水平，恢复时间随高度的变化而不同。     

Detection of the ionospheric disturbances on GPS-TEC using Differential Rate Of TEC (DROT) algorithm

The solar, geomagnetic, gravitational and seismic activities can cause spatial and temporal (hourly, diurnal, seasonal and annual) variabilities of the ionosphere. Main observable ionospheric parameters such as Total Electron Content (TEC) can be used to quantify these. TEC is the total number of electrons on a ray path crossing the atmosphere. The network of world-wide Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers provide a cost-effective solution in estimating TEC over a significant proportion of global land mass. This study is focused on the analysis of the variations of ionosphere over a midlatitude region using GPS-TEC estimates for three Sun Spot Numbers (SSN) periods. The investigation is based on a fast and automatic variability detection algorithm, Differential Rate Of TEC (DROT). The algorithm is tested using literature data on disturbances generated by a geomagnetic activity, a Solar Flare, a Medium Scale Travelling Ionospheric Disturbance (MSTID), a Large Scale TID (LSTID) and an earthquake. Very good agreement with the results in the literature is found. DROT is applied to IONOLAB-TEC estimates from nine Turkish National Permanent GPS Network (TNPGN Active) stations over Turkey to detect the any wave-like oscillations, sudden disturbances and other irregularities during December, March, June, September months for 2010, 2011, 2012 years. It is observed that DROT algorithm is capable of detecting both small and large scale variability due to climatic, gravitational, geomagnetic and solar activities in all layers of ionosphere. The highest DROT values are observed in 2010 during winter months. In higher solar activity years of 2011 and 2012, DROT is able to indicate both seasonal variability and severe changes in ionosphere due to increased number of geomagnetic storms and local seismic activities.     

Electron density reference profile in the lower ionosphere

The new IRI formula, as accepted at the 1983 Stara Zagora Workshop, prescribes the use of Epstein functions for reproducing logarithmic electron density profiles. In this paper we discuss solutions which might be applicable to the lower ionosphere. The experimental data base is briefly reviewed. It appears that the stratification near 80 km must be accepted as a regular feature of the daytime lower ionosphere. The C-layer problem is left open. In order to reproduce such profiles, one needs three LAY-functions. Examples show that the weighted sum of these does very well represent experimental profiles, the amplitudes being determined by a least square fit. For profile synthesis (as in IRI) a least square determination of the three amplitudes, admitting four linear conditions, is proposed.     

由电离层电位所建立的大气电状态

本文在已知电离层电位分布下, 解析地计算了大气电位, 电场和电流强度的全球分布.结果表明, 在大气导电率随高度呈指数增加的情况下, 100km高度上的电离层电位, 几乎无衰减地扫到25km以下.大气电场较强的区域主要在20km以下的低层大气区, 其垂直分量比水平分量大4个数量级.而中高层大气电场较弱, 且两分量量级相当.本文还提出了一种考虑地面形状对大气电场影响的解析方法.      

台风影响电离层F2区的一种可能机制

在台风期间,特别是台风登陆前后,强烈的海气、陆气相互作用会增强低层大气中的湍流活动,并可能导致大气湍流层顶的抬升.这种抬升会改变高层大气结构,从而影响高层大气中的光化学过程,最终造成对电离层的影响.在台风活动抬升了湍流层顶的前提下,利用一个一维电离层物理模型,模拟了日本中纬地区(45°N,142°E)电离层F2区的响应.模拟结果很好地定性解释了如下观测事实,台风期间,电离层f0F2会下降,对给定频率电波的反射面会抬升;同时还表明以上过程会导致hmF2上升,这表明台风期间湍流层顶的抬升可能是台风影响电离层F2区的一种十分有效的机制.      

Location of layered structures in the ionosphere and atmosphere by use of GPS occultation data

A method is introduced to locate the layered structures in the atmosphere and ionosphere based on simultaneous observations of radio wave intensity and phase variations in trans-ionospheric satellite-to-satellite links. The method determines location of a tangent point on the trans-ionospheric ray trajectory where gradient of refractivity is perpendicular to the ray trajectory and influence of a layered structure on radio wave parameters is maximal. An estimate of the location of a layer can be obtained from a combination of the phase and intensity variations. This new technique was applied to measurements provided during FORMOSAT-3 and CHAMP radio occultation (RO) missions. For the considered RO events the location of the inclined plasma layer in the lower ionosphere is found and the electron density distribution is retrieved. The method is checked by measuring the location of the tangent point on the ray trajectory in the neutral gas in the atmosphere. The results showed a fairly good agreement.     

Probing the magnetosphere with artificial electron beams

Since 1970 the Minnesota group has completed five sounding rocket experiments in which electron beams were injected into the magnetosphere at ionospheric heights and the interaction of the beams with the nearby and distant magnetosphere studied. By the technique of precisely locating conjugate region beam echoes the distant electric and magnetic field structures were studied by mapping into the local ionosphere. Ionospheric fields were measured directly for comparison. Subjects studied included gradient and curvature drifts, electric field drifts, electron pitch angle diffusion and other types of interactions with the tail plasma sheet region and the nearby ionosphere and atmosphere. The beams were also studied by plasma wave and ground-based electromagnetic detectors, by ground-based low light level television techniques and by extensive on-board rocket x-ray, photometer and particle detectors. Vehicle potentials and neutralizing processes and beam-ionosphere interactions have also been studied but will not be discussed in this paper.     

内重力波传播的3维传输函数模式研究

在考虑背景风场及大气耗散的条件下,建立了3维内重力波传输函数数值模式.分析了300 km高度3维传输函数在频率波数域的特性,并以近地面单位脉冲点源为激发源,得到了内重力波在3维空间中的时空分布.讨论了不同时空尺度地面方波源激发的内重力波在电离层高度的能量分布特征.结果表明,(1)对内重力波而言,背景大气相当于一个带通滤波器,只有波动周期和波长分别在15～30 min和200～400 km之间的重力波扰动最容易上传到300km高度;(2)在背景风场的作用下水平面上以同心圆扩散的波阵面以及垂直方向上成漏斗状的波阵面发生了变形,并且逆风方向比顺风方向更有利于声重力波由对流层向电离层高度传播;(3)300km高度对时间尺度和空间尺度分别在20～30 min和150～250 km之间的地面方波源响应的总能量最强.      

Possible DC electric field in the ionosphere related to seismicity

This paper presents the method for calculation of DC electric field in the atmosphere and the ionosphere generated by model distribution of external electric current in the lower atmosphere. Appearance of such current is associated with enhancement of seismic activity that is accompanied by emanation of soil gases into the atmosphere. These gases transfer positive and negative charged aerosols. Atmospheric convection of charged aerosols forms external electric current, which works as a source of conductivity current in the atmosphere–ionosphere electric circuit. It is shown that DC electric field generated in the ionosphere by this current reaches up to 10 mV/m, while the long-term vertical electric field disturbances excited near the Earth surface do not exceed 100 V/m. Such limitation of the near-ground field is caused by the formation of potential barrier for charged particles at the Earth surface in a process of their transport from soil to atmosphere.     

A Review on the Ionospheric Research:Chinese Works During 2006—2008

This paper reviews various progresses on the ionospheric studies by the scientists in China during the last two years.The main contents concern the 4 aspects of the ionospheric re-search:(1) ionospheric weather and coupling with magnetosphere(polar and auroral ionosphere,ionospheric response to substorms,ionospheric storms);(2) mid-and low-latitude ionospheric clima-tology(ionospheric properties,yearly variations and solar activity dependence,long term variation);(3) ionospheric coupling with neutral atmosphere(gravity waves,tides,planetary waves,background upper atmosphere,and ionospheric response);and(4) ionospheric diagnostics(observation,modeling,and prediction).     

Ionospheric and stratospheric effects of a proton flare during unusual solar activity — 22 November 1977

The effect of the proton flare of 22 November 1977 on the various levels in the middle atmosphere and the bottom-side ionosphere is studied in order to compare synchronous phenomena in the middle atmosphere with phenomena in upper regions and to investigate the response of middle atmosphere to the penetration of high energy solar particles and radiation.