Nightside 135.6 nm emission enhancements of mid/low latitudes during geomagnetic storms as observed by the ionosphere PhotoMeter (IPM) on the Chinese meteorological satellite FY-3D

Abstract

IPM has detected nightside 135.6 nm emission enhancements over a wide latitude range, from the sub-auroral latitudes to the equatorial regions during geomagnetic storms. Our work, presented in this paper, uses the data of IPM to understand these 135.6 nm emission enhancements during of geomagnetic storms and studies the variations of total electron content (TEC) and the F2 layer peak electron density (NmF2) in the region of enhanced emissions. Middle and low latitude emission enhancements are presented during several medium storms in 2018. The variations of both the integrated electron content (IEC) derived from the nighttime OI 135.6 nm emission by IPM and TEC from the International GNSS Service (IGS) relative to the daily mean of magnetically quiet days of per each latitude bin (30°≦geographic latitude < 40°, 15°≦geographic latitude < 30°, 0°≦geographic latitude < 15°, −15°≦geographic latitude < 0°, −30°≦geographic latitude < -15°, −40°≦geographic latitude < -30°) are investigated and show that on magnetically storm day, IEC by IPM always increases, while TEC from IGC may increase or decrease. Even if both increase, the increase of IEC is greater than that of TEC. From the comparison of IEC and TEC during magnetic storms, it can be seen that the enhancement of the nighttime 135.6 nm emissions is not entirely due to the ionospheric change. The time of IEC enhancements at each latitude bin is in good agreement, which mainly corresponds to the main phase time of the geomagnetic storm event and lasts until the recovery phase. The available ground-based ionosonde stations provide the values of NmF2 which match the 135.6 nm emissions measured by IPM in space and time. The variations of NmF2 squared can characterize the variations of the OI 135.6 nm emissions caused by O+ ions and electrons radiative recombination. The study results show that the OI 135.6 nm emission enhancements caused by O+ ions and electrons radiative recombination (where NmF2 squared increases) are obviously a contribution to the measured 135.6 nm emission enhancements by IPM. The contribution accounts for at least one of all contributions to the measured 135.6 nm emission enhancements by IPM. However, where the NmF2 squared provided by ionosonde decrease or change little (where the OI 135.6 nm emissions cause by O+ ions and electrons radiative recombination also decrease or change little), the emission enhancements measured by IPM at storm-time appear to come from the contributions of other mechanisms, such as energetic neutral atoms precipitation, or the mutual neutralization emission (O+ + O-→2O + hʋ (135.6 nm)) which also occupies a certain proportion in 135.6 nm airglow emission at night.