Abstract
The relationship between day-to-day variability of equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) and the neutral atmosphere is studied. This study is based on the previous study in which the GPS scintillation index and the tropospheric cloud-top temperature are used as proxies for EPB activity and atmospheric perturbations, respectively, and a correlation was found between their day-to-day variations. In this paper, we maintained the same GPS scintillation data but substituted the atmospheric data via an assimilation run of the Ground-to-topside model of Atmosphere and Ionosphere for Aeronomy (GAIA). Cross-correlation between the EPB activity and the atmospheric temperature is similar to the results in Ogawa et al. (Earth Planets Space 61:397–410, 2009). The new findings from our study include (1) an enhanced correlation between the EPB activity and the neutral atmosphere is found in horizontally and vertically large areas, (2) the longitudinal disturbance of atmospheric temperature and wind velocity during the EPB-active days is enhanced, and (3) the enhancement of atmospheric disturbance during the EPB-active days shows a similarity to the characteristics of large-scale wave structures in the ionosphere. These results more clearly support couplings between EPBs and the neutral atmosphere.
Highlights
Equatorial plasma bubble (EPB) is one of intense ionospheric phenomena that occur in the low-latitude and equatorial ionosphere (e.g., Kelley 2009)
Our study focuses on EPB events in the period of March–April in 2003, 2004, and 2005
This study is based on the results of Ogawa et al (2009) and expands their results by utilizing atmospheric data from the GAIA assimilation based on the atmospheric reanalysis data up to an altitude of 30 km
Summary
Equatorial plasma bubble (EPB) is one of intense ionospheric phenomena that occur in the low-latitude and equatorial ionosphere (e.g., Kelley 2009). EPB is the phenomenon in which depletion of ionospheric plasma at the bottom side F region becomes unstable, and rapidly grows and upwells to an altitude of up to 1000 km. By using VHF radar, we can measure intense radar echoes caused by EPB-associated plasma irregularities (Woodman 2009). Intense EPBs cause severe scintillation to the radiowave communications from satellites to the ground, or degradation of positioning by global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs). (Care should be taken because scintillations can sometimes occur due to the plasma irregularities on the ray path but otherwise not be associated with EPBs.) There is a social demand to study EPBs and, if possible, to predict their occurrence. (Care should be taken because scintillations can sometimes occur due to the plasma irregularities on the ray path but otherwise not be associated with EPBs.)
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