Daytime F-region irregularity triggered by rocket-induced ionospheric hole over low latitude

Guozhu Li,Guotao Yang,M A Abdu,Lianhuan Hu,Michi Nishioka,Baiqi Ning,Chunxiao Yan,Takuya Tsugawa,Jiuhou Lei,Weixing Wan,Chi Wang,Yuichi Otsuka

doi:10.1186/s40645-018-0172-y

Abstract

Unexpected daytime F-region irregularities following the appearance of an ionospheric hole have been observed over low latitude. The irregularities developed initially above the F-region peak height (~ 360 km) with a thickness of about 30 km and an east-west extension of more than 200 km around 1057 LT and then expanded upward to 500 km altitude behaving like the equatorial spread-F (ESF) irregularities of the nighttime ionosphere. These daytime F-region irregularities cannot be explained on basis of an earlier suggestion that the F-region irregularities observed during daytime are the continuation of the irregularities initially generated on the previous night. Based on the coincidence, both in space and time, with the appearance of an ionospheric hole, which was generated after the passage of a rocket, we conclude that the daytime F-region irregularities must have been artificially generated locally through a manifestation of plasma instability triggered by the rocket exhaust-induced ionospheric hole over low latitude.

Highlights

Equatorial spread-F (ESF), which contains plasma irregularities of wide-ranging scale sizes, commonly occurs in the nighttime equatorial ionospheric F-region with a maximum occurrence during pre-midnight hours (Kelley 2009 and the references therein)
This study has presented an unexpected case of F-region irregularities that were artificially generated in the daytime ionosphere over low latitude
The degree of the total electron content (TEC) depletion indicated the presence of a deep plasma hole created by the rocket exhaust in the background F-region

Summary

Introduction

Equatorial spread-F (ESF), which contains plasma irregularities of wide-ranging scale sizes, commonly occurs in the nighttime equatorial ionospheric F-region with a maximum occurrence during pre-midnight hours (Kelley 2009 and the references therein). By using total electron content (TEC) observations from a globally distributed GPS receiver network, together with ionosonde data and satellite Another type of daytime F-region irregularities was first observed by the Jicamarca radar (Woodman et al 1985; Chau and Woodman 2001) and by the Sao Luis and Fuke VHF radars (Shume et al 2013; Chen et al 2017) during quiet geomagnetic conditions. These irregularities, which seem unlikely to cause any diffuse echo in ionosonde ionogram, were very rarely observed and called as ESF-like irregularities (Chau and Woodman 2001). Radar observations showed that the backscatter echoes from these irregularities usually persist for a short

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Discussion

Conclusion