@Article{Abdu:2016:ElIoWe,
author = "Abdu, Mangalathayil Ali",
affiliation = "{Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)}",
title = "Electrodynamics of ionospheric weather over low latitudes",
journal = "Geoscience Letters",
year = "2016",
volume = "3",
number = "11",
abstract = "The dynamic state of the ionosphere at low latitudes is largely
controlled by electric fields originating from dynamo actions by
atmospheric waves propagating from below and the solar
wind-magnetosphere interaction from above. These electric fields
cause structuring of the ionosphere in wide ranging spatial and
temporal scales that impact on space-based communication and
navigation systems constituting an important segment of our
technology-based day-to-day lives. The largest of the ionosphere
structures, the equatorial ionization anomaly, with global maximum
of plasma densities can cause propagation delays on the GNSS
signals. The sunset electrodynamics is responsible for the
generation of plasma bubble wide spectrum irregularities that can
cause scintillation or even disruptions of satellite
communication/navigation signals. Driven basically by upward
propagating tides, these electric fields can suffer significant
modulations from perturbation winds due to gravity waves,
planetary/Kelvin waves, and non-migrating tides, as recent
observational and modeling results have demonstrated. The changing
state of the plasma distribution arising from these highly
variable electric fields constitutes an important component of the
ionospheric weather disturbances. Another, often dominating,
component arises from solar disturbances when coronal mass
ejection (CME) interaction with the earths magnetosphere results
in energy transport to low latitudes in the form of storm time
prompt penetration electric fields and thermospheric disturbance
winds. As a result, drastic modifications can occur in the form of
layer restructuring (Es-, F3 layers etc.), large total electron
content (TEC) enhancements, equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA)
latitudinal expansion/contraction, anomalous polarization electric
fields/vertical drifts, enhanced growth/suppression of plasma
structuring, etc. A brief review of our current understanding of
the ionospheric weather variations and the electrodynamic
processes underlying them and some outstanding questions will be
presented in this paper.",
doi = "10.1186/s40562-016-0043-6",
url = "http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s40562-016-0043-6",
issn = "2196-4092",
language = "en",
targetfile = "abdu_eletrodynamics.pdf",
urlaccessdate = "13 maio 2024"
}