Study and characterization of the longitudinal four peaks structure present in observations of the equatorial anomaly ionization performed by satellite

Abstract

Recent observational studies conducted by satellites have shown the presence of four peaks in the longitudinal structure of the equatorial ionization anomaly. Subsequent works have emphasized that these four peaks are due to the upward propagation of the non-migrating tides with zonal wave number 3. The effects of atmospheric fluctuations originated in the troposphere can propagate to the ionosphere through the mechanism of the ionospheric dynamo, in which waves of different frequencies are able to modulate the vertical drift giving rise to the equatorial ionization anomaly. This study aims to use temperature and total electron content observations from the satellite constellation FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC to investigate and characterize these four peaks. The characterization of these peaks will be done in order to create global maps of total electron content, while the temperature observations will be used to investigate the propagation of atmospheric waves from the troposphere to the ionosphere, and study how these waves could be involved in development of each of these four peaks. For this purpose, two different spectral analysis techniques will be used in order to detect the wave oscillations present in observations of temperature and total electron content. In this way, it will be possible to investigate in detail their vertical propagation. (AU)