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DP2 type electric field fluctuations observed by FM-CW HF radar network
- Kagoshima National College of Technology, Japan
- International Center for Space Weather Science and Education, Kyushu University, Japan
- Institute of Cosmophysical Researches and Radio Wave Propagation FEB RAS, Russia
DP2 type geomagnetic fluctuations are associated with field aligned
currents between the magnetosphere and the polar ionosphere. Field aligned
currents impose a dawn-to-dusk and/or a dusk-to-dawn electric fields on
the polar ionosphere. These electric fields penetrate instantaneously to
the middle, low, and equatorial ionosphere and cause east-west electric
field fluctuations in both the dayside and the nightside ionosphere. It
shows an energy transfer process from the magnetosphere to the
low-latitude ionosphere through the polar region. In order to observe the
penetration of electric field fluctuations in the ionosphere, a chain of
the FM-CW (Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave) HF radar has been
developed along the 210 magnetic meridian. Our first radar was installed
at Sasaguri (Geomagnetic Latitude = 26), Japan in 2002. The second radar
was installed at Paratunka (Geomagnetic Latitude = 46), Kamchatka, Russia
in 2006. And the third radar was installed at Manila (Geomagnetic Latitude
= 6), Philippine in 2009. The MAGDAS FM-CW radar network covered widely
from 6 to 46 degrees geomagnetic latitudes. The FM-CW HF radar is a kind
of the ionosonde. The radar transmits high frequency wave to the
ionosphere and observes the Doppler shift of the received wave frequency
which is reflected by the F region ionosphere. The magnitude of the
Doppler shift of the received wave frequency corresponds to the vertical
drift velocity of the reflecting layer in the ionosphere. The ionospheric
plasma is moving by the E x B drift, where B is the local ambient magnetic
field. The east-west electric field becomes a possible source of the
vertical drift of the ionospheric plasma in the low latitude ionosphere.
According to this feature of the low latitude ionosphere, the FM-CW HF
radar can observe east-west electric field fluctuations. DP2 fluctuations
were observed and were statistically analyzed by using the radar data at
PTK and SAS stations and the magnetic data observed by the MAGDAS/CPMN
network. The amplitude ratio of DP2 type electric field fluctuations in
the nightside observed by the radar at PTK and SAS to magnetic field
fluctuations observed at the dayside equator are 0.107 mV/m/nT and 0.030
mV/m/nT, respectively. The amplitude of DP 2 electric field fluctuations
decreased with decreasing latitude in the nightside ionosphere. In the
observed events, amplitude ratio of electric field fluctuations at 26
degrees geomagnetic latitude to those at 46 degrees was about 1/4.