Results of Observations of Ionospheric Plasma Drift in the Polarization Jet Region

Abstract

Doppler measurement data from the Yakutsk subauroral ionospheric station have been used to reveal for the first time new and previously unknown dynamic phenomena during the development of the polarization jet. This study of horizontal and vertical velocities of ionospheric drifts reveals that the peaks of vertical and horizontal velocity components do not always coincide during the observation of a polarization jet. The horizontal plasma drift velocities are ~300–600 m/s on average (there are events with velocities of 900–1000 m/s). The vertical drift velocities are 30–50 m/s on average (there are events with velocities of 100–150 m/s). Analysis of ground-based ionospheric data has revealed that all events with the development of the polarization jet over Yakutsk were uniformly divided into four cases. In the first case, the vertical velocities in the polarization jet band reached a maximum simultaneously with horizontal velocities. In the other two cases, the times of the vertical velocity peaks are shifted to both sides of the reference time by ±1 h. In the latter case, the vertical velocities have similar peaks on both sides of horizontal velocity peaks.