Response of ion velocities of daytime ionospheric wavenumber-4 to solar activity observed by ROCSAT-1 and DEMETER

Abstract

Abstract The electron/ion density/temperature and ion velocities observed by the ROCSAT-1 and DEMETER satellites are used to examine the daytime wavenumber-4 (WN4) feature in the equatorial/low latitude ionosphere during various months and solar activity levels of 1999–2010. A moving median process has been employed to isolate WN4 features and calculate their amplitudes, while the upward ion drift is used to estimate electric fields. The ROCSAT-1 and DEMETER ion density, ion temperature, and ion velocity generally yield prominent WN4 features over the center of Pacific Ocean, the west side of South America, the center of the Atlantic Ocean, and Southern India. The correlation coefficient between the deviation of ion density and upward ion drift is significant during high solar activity of 1999–2004, while it approaches to zero during low solar activity of 2004–2010. This confirms that the longitudinal variation of the upward ion drift is essential during high solar activity, and the associated amplitude of dynamo eastward electric field is in the range of 0.10–0.14 mV/m, which is 15–19% of daily dynamo electric field. By contrast, the deviation of the ion density and the northward field-aligned ion flow show a clear anti-correlation which yields a maximum coefficient in August during low solar activity but no correlation during high solar activity. These indicate that the longitudinal variation of the meridional field-aligned ion flow could play an important role during low solar activity, and its amplitude is in the range of 10.44–13.91 m/s, which is 10–13% of the ambient ion flows.

Keywords

• Wavenumber-4
• Solar activity
• E × B drift
• Meridional ion flow
• Dynamo electric field
• DEMETER