COORDINATED OBSERVATIONS OF NIGHTTIME MEDIUM-SCALE TRAVELING IONOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES IN 630-NM AIRGLOW AND HF RADAR ECHOES AT MIDLATITUDES

  1. Sugadaira Space Radio Observatory, University of Electro-Communications, Chofu, Japan
  2. National Institute of Polar Research, Tachikawa, Tokyo, Japan
  3. Department of Information and Communication Engineering, University of Electro-Communications, Chofu, Japan
  4. Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Nagoya, Japan
  5. National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Koganei, Japan
  6. Department of Physics and Engineering Physics, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada
  7. Institute of Cosmophysical Research and Radiowaves Propagation, Far Eastern Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Paratunka, Russia

We investigate nighttime medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) using the SuperDARN HF radar at Hokkaido, Japan (43.5°N, 143.6°E), and an OI 630-nm airglow imager located at Paratunka, Russia (53.0°N, 158.2°E), within the radar field of view. The imager identified southwestward propagating MSTIDs with a horizontal wavelength of 300 km on 8 December 2007. Throughout this event, the radar continuously detected ionospheric echoes originating from decameter-scale field-aligned irregularities (FAIs) at the F region heights. The Doppler velocities of these echoes showed systematic polarity changes which were consistent with airglow intensity variations. These polarity changes would be attributed to E × B plasma drifts caused by the polarization electric field embedded in the MSTIDs. The FAI echo powers also varied in agreement with the airglow intensity variations: strong (weak) echoes coincided with the airglow depletion (enhancement) region. Considering the MSTID polarization electric field, it is suggested that the observed FAIs were generated by the gradient drift instability on the bottomside of the F region.

Suzuki, S., K. Hosokawa, T. F. Shibata, K. Shiokawa, Y. Otsuka, N. Nishitani, T. Ogawa, A. V. Koustov, and B. M. Shevtsov, Coordinated observations of nighttime medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances in 630-nm airglow and HF radar echoes at midlatitudes, J. Geophys. Res., 114, A07312, doi:10.1029/2008JA013963, 2009.