Abstract
We provide the first comparison of the ICON-EUV O+ density profile with radio wave datasets coming from GNSS radio-occultation, ionosondes and incoherent scatter radar. The peak density and height deduced from those different observation techniques are compared. It is found that the EUV-deduced peak density is smaller than that from other techniques by 50 to 60%, while the altitude of the peak is retrieved with a slight bias of 10 to 20 km on average. These average values are found to vary between November 2019 and March 2021. Magnetic latitude and local time are not factors significantly influencing this variability. In contrast, the EUV density is closer to that deduced from radio-wave techniques in the mid latitude region, i.e. where the ionospheric crests do not play a role. The persistent very low solar activity conditions prevailing during the studied time interval challenge the EUV O+ density profile retrieval technique. These values are consistent, both in magnitude and direction, with a systematic error on the order of 10% in the data or the forward model, or a combination of both. Ultimately, the EUV instrument on-board ICON provides the only known technique capable of precisely monitoring the ionospheric peak properties at daytime from a single space platform, on a global scale and at high cadence. This feature paves the way to transpose the technology to the study of the ionosphere surrounding other planets.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the ICON Science Team for the richness of the discussions and their fruitful collaboration throughout these first two years in orbit. Gilles Wautelet, Benoît Hubert, and Jean-Claude Gérard acknowledge financial support from the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) via the PRODEX Program of ESA. Gilles Wautelet and Benoît Hubert are supported by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS). ICON is supported by NASA’s Explorers Program through contracts NNG12FA45C and NNG12FA42I. Radar observations and analysis at Millstone Hill and the Madrigal distributed database system are supported by NSF Cooperative Agreement AGS-1952737 with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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The Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) Mission: First Results
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Wautelet, G., Hubert, B., Gérard, JC. et al. Comparison of ICON-EUV F-Peak Characteristic Parameters with External Data Sources. Space Sci Rev 218, 62 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-022-00930-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-022-00930-2