Engineering topics

Roddy, Patrick A.

Publications and source records attributed to Roddy, Patrick A..

3 records

NASA NTRS2013

Ion-neutral Coupling During Deep Solar Minimum

The equatorial ionosphere under conditions of deep solar minimum exhibits structuring due to tidal forces. Data from instruments carried by the Communication Navigation Outage Forecasting System (CNOFS) which was launched in April 2008 have been analyzed for the first 2 years following launch. The Planar Langmuir Probe (PLP), Ion Velocity Meter (IVM) and Vector Electric Field Investigation (VEFI) all detect periodic structures during the 20082010 period which appear to be tides. However when the tidal features detected by these instruments are compared, there are distinctive and significant differences between the observations. Tides in neutral densities measured by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite were also observed during June 2008. In addition, Broad Plasma Decreases (BPDs) appear as a deep absolute minimum in the plasma and neutral density tidal pattern. These are co-located with regions of large downward-directed ion meridional velocities and minima in the zonal drifts, all on the nightside. The region in which BPDs occur coincides with a peak in occurrence rate of dawn depletions in plasma density observed on the Defense Meterological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft, as well as a minimum in radiance detected by UV imagers on the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) and IMAGE satellites

IVM↗

NASA NTRS2012

Measurements and IRI Model Predictions During the Recent Solar Minimum

Cycle 23 was exceptional in that it lasted almost two years longer than its predecessors and in that it ended in an extended minimum period that proved all predictions wrong. Comparisons of the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) with CHAMP and GRACE in-situ measurements of electron density during the minimum have revealed significant discrepancies at 400-500 km altitude. Our study investigates the causes for these discrepancies with the help of ionosonde and Planar Langmuir Probe (PLP) data from the Communications/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite. Our C/NOFS comparisons confirm the earlier CHAMP and GRACE results. But the ionosonde measurements of the F-peak plasma frequency (foF2) show generally good agreement throughout the whole solar cycle. At mid-latitude stations yearly averages of the data-model difference are within 10% and at low latitudes stations within 20%. The 60-70% differences found at 400-500 km altitude are not seen at the F peak. We will discuss how these seemingly contradicting results from the ionosonde and in situ data-model comparisons can be explained and which parameters need to be corrected in the IRI model.

Bilitza, Dieter↗

NASA NTRS2012

Images of Bottomside Irregularities Observed at Topside Altitudes

We analyzed plasma and field measurements acquired by the Communication/ Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite during an eight-hour period on 13-14 January 2010 when strong to moderate 250 MHz scintillation activity was observed at nearby Scintillation Network Decision Aid (SCINDA) ground stations. C/NOFS consistently detected relatively small-scale density and electric field irregularities embedded within large-scale (approx 100 km) structures at topside altitudes. Significant spectral power measured at the Fresnel (approx 1 km) scale size suggests that C/NOFS was magnetically conjugate to bottomside irregularities similar to those directly responsible for the observed scintillations. Simultaneous ion drift and plasma density measurements indicate three distinct types of large-scale irregularities: (1) upward moving depletions, (2) downward moving depletions, and (3) upward moving density enhancements. The first type has the characteristics of equatorial plasma bubbles; the second and third do not. The data suggest that both downward moving depletions and upward moving density enhancements and the embedded small-scale irregularities may be regarded as Alfvenic images of bottomside irregularities. This interpretation is consistent with predictions of previously reported theoretical modeling and with satellite observations of upward-directed Poynting flux in the low-latitude ionosphere.

satellite↗