The characteristics of terdiurnal tides in the ionosphere

Abstract

Studying the characteristics of terdiurnal tides in the ionosphere provides an important pathway to understand the dynamic coupling between the low atmosphere and the ionosphere. Based on the TEC data from the Madrigal database at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Haystack Observatory, a decomposition and nonlinear fitting method is used to derive ionospheric terdiurnal tides. Statistical analysis is then carried out to study the variability of ionospheric terdiurnal tides. Both the absolute and relative amplitudes of terdiurnal tides are large near the equator and in the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) region. The relative amplitude of terdiurnal tides in the Northern Hemisphere is larger than that in the Southern Hemisphere at low latitude, exhibiting hemispheric asymmetry. The amplitudes of terdiurnal tides at magnetic middle latitudes (∼35 °N MLat) at the east hemisphere (142 °E), west hemisphere (90 °W) and zero degree longitude sites all have annual, semiannual and 4-month cycles. Furthermore, our analysis shows that there are longitudinal variations of terdiurnal tides and these variations appear to be dependent on solar activity. Terdiurnal tides show two peaks near the equinoxes, one in March and April, and the other between October and November. The terdiurnal tides with characteristics of large amplitudes in the equator and EIA regions, and their correlation with the diurnal and semidiurnal components suggest that terdiurnal tides and their intra-annual variations are likely related to the nonlinear interaction between diurnal and semidiurnal tides, which also show strong intra-annual variations.