Advection of the equatorial anomaly over Arecibo by small‐storm related disturbance dynamo electric fields

Abstract

During highly disturbed geomagnetic periods, both the Arecibo radar and the Ramey ionosonde have recorded impressive nighttime ionospheric enhancements in which the peak electron density exceeded 1 × 1012 m−3 and the F2 peak height went above 400 km. In the past it has been suggested that these events could be caused by either a downward plasmaspheric flux that increases the density in the F region or by an eastward electric field that pushes the equatorial anomaly poleward to the Caribbean sector. On February 17–18, 1999 the Arecibo radar made observations during an event in which the electron density again rose to daytime values near midnight. For this event, the peaks in density were observed predominantly southeast of Arecibo while the ions sustained a northward‐eastward motion due to an eastward‐southward storm dynamo electric field. TEC maps from GPS for this night confirmed that the density enhancements were due to a poleward expansion of the equatorial anomaly.