VarSITI Grants
Campaigns supported by VarSITI in 2017
Coordinated investigations of topside H+ ions:
new results for inner magnetosphere
Area of research: inner magnetosphere, SPeCIMEN
Coordinator: Institute of Ionosphere, Ukraine
In the last couple of years, it was found that NRLMSISE-00 neutral H density was underestimated by a factor of 3 during the unusual 2006–2009 solar minimum period. This finding produces lower than normal O+-H+ transition heights and increased plasmaspheric H+ fluxes enhance the nighttime peak electron density (NmF2) at mid-latitudes. It also has important implications for plasmasphere refilling after magnetic storms.
The aim of the new VarSITI campaign is to continue such studies to see if the same pattern of enhanced H density takes place in the approaching solar minimum of 2016–2017. The results will be especially interesting because the upcoming solar minimum follows a much weaker solar maximum than the one that preceded the 2006–2009 solar minimum.
We will analyze data of Kharkiv incoherent scatter radar (49.6 N, 36.3 E) radar and COSMIC for the years of 2016–2017, use the FLIP physical model and compare the results with ones obtained for the period of 2006–2009.
The measurement campaign will be carried out during 2017. The Kharkiv IS radar will observe the topside ionosphere within several days close to each of equinoxes and summer solstice.
A meeting to analyze the results of the campaign is planned to be held at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Prague, Czech Republic in October 2017.
The campaign is open to the VarSITI community. The members will be informed about the planning measurements beforehand (no later than 10 days before our measurements).
All interested members are invited to participate in the coordinated investigations
using their research tools.
Please send all your suggestions, questions, and proposed activities to the e-mail of the coordinator Dr. Dmytro Kotov: dmitrykotoff[at]gmail.com.
We are looking forward to fruitful results from this collaboration,
Dmytro Kotov, coordinator of the campaign, senior researcher at Institute of Ionosphere, Kharkiv, Ukraine
Vladimir Truhlik, deputy head of the Department of Upper Atmosphere of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Prague, Czech Republic
Philip Richards, professor at George Mason University, Fairfax, USA
Related References:
Kotov D.V. et al. (2015), Night-time light ion transition height behaviour over the Kharkiv (500N, 360E) IS radar during the equinoxes of 2006–2010 // J. Atmospheric and Solar-Terrestrial Physics, 132, 1–12, doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2015.06.004.
Kotov D.V. et al. (2016), The importance of neutral hydrogen for the maintenance of the midlatitude winter nighttime ionosphere: Evidence from IS observations at Kharkiv, Ukraine, and field line interhemispheric plasma model simulations, // J. Geophys. Res. Space Physics, 121, 7013–7025, doi:10.1002/2016JA022442.