Abstract
During the Spread FEx campaign, under the NASA Living with a star (ILWS) program which was carried out in the South American Magnetic Equatorial region from September to November 2005, we observed formation of the bottom-type spread F and simultaneous occurrence of mesospheric gravity wave events. The events were monitored by the ionosonde, coherent radar and airglow OI 630.0 nm and OH imager. It is found that the bottom-type scattering layer has a wave form generated most probably by local gravity waves. Reverse ray-tracing of the observed gravity waves indicate their possible sources in the troposphere or thermosphere. Forward ray-tracing indicates their penetration into the ionosphere. The present work summarizes the observational evidence and results of the data analysis and discusses the mesosphere–ionosphere coupling processes.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank for several institutions and observatory staffs by whom the ground based observations were carried out. Thanks are also due to Maria Goreti S. Aquino who reduced the ionogram data. São Luis VHF radar was developed and installed by the support of FAPECP under the process 2004/01065-0. The RTI images were prepared by Eng. Lazaro A. P. Camargo. We thank for him. The SpreadFEx field program and data analysis were supported by NASA under contracts NNH04CC67C and NAS5-02036. The present project was also partially supported by CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cietífico e Tecnológico) under contract 301876/2007-0.
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Takahashi, H. et al. (2011). Mesosphere–Ionosphere Coupling Processes Observed in the F Layer Bottom-Side Oscillation. In: Abdu, M., Pancheva, D. (eds) Aeronomy of the Earth's Atmosphere and Ionosphere. IAGA Special Sopron Book Series, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0326-1_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0326-1_11
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