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Equatorial Plasma Bubbles: Variability of the Latitudinal Distribution with Altitude

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Abstract

Ionosphere plasma irregularities known as equatorial plasma bubbles are the subject of this research. The variability of the latitudinal distributions of the occurrence probability of the bubbles with increasing the observation altitude is studied. For this purpose, the data from the ISS-b (~972–1220 km), ROCSAT-1 (~600 km), and AE-E (~300 km, ~350–475 km) satellites at the different orbital altitudes were used. Different seasons in the years of the increased and maximal solar activity were considered. (1) The latitudinal distributions of the equatorial plasma bubbles at the altitudes of their generation are shown to be basically the same at the altitudes of the topside ionosphere (~972–1220 km). This characteristic was revealed, because the bubbles at these altitudes were detected not as the depletions in the total ion or electron density but as the structures with depleted He+ density. (2) In addition to the central (equatorial) maximum, the additional mid-latitude maxima were found to develop in the latitudinal distributions of the occurrence probability of the bubbles with increasing the observation altitude (from ~600 to ~1000 km). This feature is the most pronounced in both hemispheres during the equinox and in the winter hemispheres. (3) The positions of the mid-latitude maxima were found to shift towards the equator with increasing the observation altitude. This is in good agreement with the spatial (latitudinal–altitudinal) course of the magnetic flux tubes along which the plasma bubbles that reached their ceiling altitudes are “stretched”.

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  1. Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radio Wave Propagation, Russian Academy of Sciences (IZMIRAN), 108840, Moscow, Troitsk, Russia

    L. N. Sidorova

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Sidorova, L.N. Equatorial Plasma Bubbles: Variability of the Latitudinal Distribution with Altitude. Geomagn. Aeron. 61, 508–519 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0016793221040162

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