Observations of neutral winds and electric fields using...

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF GEOMAGNETISM AND AERONOMY VOL. 5, GI1003, doi:10.1029/2003GI000056, 2004

Observations of neutral winds and electric fields using backscatter from field-aligned irregularities

L. M. Kagan¹
Radiophysical Research Institute, Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia

S. Fukao, and M. Yamamoto
Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan

P. B. Rao
National Remote Sensing Agency, Department of Space, Hyderabad, India

¹Also at Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

Abstract

[1] We propose an experiment, a data processing procedure, and a method to recover the electric fields and neutral winds, which are the driving forces for field-aligned irregularity (FAI) generation, from the range-time distribution of line-of-sight Doppler velocities during type 2 backscatter events in the ionospheric E region. In doing so we proceed from the fact that ionospheric parameters, specifically the collisional frequencies, change noticeably over the radar height resolution. The proposed technique is based on our knowledge of the mechanisms for FAI generation, the models of the ionospheric parameters and the morphology of the observed velocities. We illustrate our method with a case study for the MU radar on the night of 25 July 2002. The method proposed does not require any additional funding and may be used at sites where the coherent scatter radar has a height resolution which is one half of the minimum desired resolution of the energy sources: neutral winds and electric fields.

Received 25 November 2003; revised 4 April 2004; accepted 27 April 2004; published 28 July 2004.

Keywords: Ionospheric E region; Field-aligned irregularity; winds and electric fields measurements.

Index Terms: 2411 Ionosphere: Electric fields; 2471 Ionosphere: Plasma waves and instabilities; 0394 Atmosphere: Instruments and techniques.

Citation: Kagan, L. M., S. Fukao, M. Yamamoto, and P. B. Rao (2004), Observations of neutral winds and electric fields using backscatter from field-aligned irregularities, Int. J. Geomagn. Aeron., 5, GI1003, doi:10.1029/2003GI000056.