Abstract
It is now well established that waves generated in the lower atmosphere can propagate upward and significantly impact the dynamics and mean state of the ionosphere-thermosphere (IT, 100-600 km) system. Given the geometry of magnetic field lines near the equator, a significant fraction of this IT coupling occurs at low latitudes (\(<30^{\circ}\)) and is driven by global-scale waves of tropical tropospheric origin, such as the diurnal eastward-propagating tide with zonal wavenumber 3 (DE3) and the ultra-fast Kelvin wave (UFKW). Despite recent progress, lack of coincident global observations has thus far precluded full characterization of the sources of day-to-day variability of these waves, including nonlinear interactions, and impacts on the low-latitude IT. In this work, in-situ ion densities from Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON)’s and Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate 2 (COSMIC-2)’s Ion Velocity Meter (IVM) along with remotely-sensed zonal winds from ICON’s Michelson Interferometer for Global High-resolution Thermospheric Imaging (MIGHTI) are used to reveal a rich spectrum of waves coupling the lower (∼90-105 km) and middle (∼200-270 km) thermosphere with the upper F-region (∼540 and ∼590 km) ionosphere. Spectral analyses for a 40-day period of similar local time demonstrate prominent IT coupling via DE3, a 3-day UFKW, and the two ∼1.43-day and ∼0.77-day secondary waves from their nonlinear interactions. While all these waves are found to dominate the F-region spectra, only the UFKW and the 1.43-day secondary wave can propagate to ∼270 km suggesting E-region wind dynamo processes as major contributors to their observed ionospheric signatures.
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Acknowledgements
ICON is supported by NASA’s Explorers Program through contracts NNG12FA45C and NNG12FA42I. This work was party supported by the NASA GOLD-ICON Guest Investigators award 80NSSC22K0019. ICON data are processed in the ICON Science Data Center at UCB and available at https://icon.ssl.berkeley.edu/data/ and from NASA’s Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF) at https://spdf.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/data/icon/l2/. Further information on the ICON IVM product can be found in NASA’s SPDF ICON directory at /documentation/ICON_L2-7_IVM-A_v05.pdf. This study employs post-processed COSMIC-2 E2 IVM L2 total ion density available via the public site at https://data.cosmic.ucar.edu/gnss-ro/cosmic2/postProc/level2/.
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The Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) Mission: First Results
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Gasperini, F., Crowley, G., Immel, T.J. et al. Vertical Wave Coupling in the Low-Latitude Ionosphere-Thermosphere as Revealed by Concurrent ICON and COSMIC-2 Observations. Space Sci Rev 218, 55 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-022-00923-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-022-00923-1