The persistence of the NWA effect during the low solar activity period 2007–2009

Abstract

AbstractThe ionospheric Nighttime Winter Anomaly (NWA) was first reported more than three decades ago based on total electron content (TEC) and vertical sounding data. The aim of this paper is to provide further evidence that the NWA effect is a persistent feature in the Northern Hemisphere at the American and in the Southern Hemisphere at the Asian longitude sector under low solar activity conditions. The analysis of ground‐based GPS derived TEC and peak electron density data from radio occultation measurements on Formosat‐3/COSMIC satellites confirms and further supports the findings published in earlier NWA papers. So it has been confirmed and further specified that the NWA appears at longitude sectors where the displacement between the geomagnetic and the geographic equator maximizes. Here NWA peaks at around 40°–50° geomagnetic midlatitude supporting the idea that wind‐induced plasma uplifting in the conjugated summer hemisphere is the main driving force for the accumulation of ionospheric plasma in the topside ionosphere and plasmasphere. In parallel, the midsummer nighttime anomaly (MSNA) is caused at the local ionosphere. Simultaneously, interhemispheric coupling causes severe downward plasma fluxes in the conjugated winter hemisphere during night causing the NWA at low solar activity. With increasing solar activity, the downward plasma fluxes lose their impact due to the much stronger increasing background ionization that masks the NWA. It is assumed that MSNA and related special anomalies such as the Weddell Sea Anomaly and the Okhotsk Sea Anomaly are closely related to the NWA via enhanced wind‐induced uplifting of the ionosphere.