U-Shaped Spectrograms Registered by the DEMETER Satellite: Observational Features and Formation Mechanism

D. Shklyar (1) , Michel Parrot (2) , E. E Titova (3)

1 IZMIRAN - Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere and Radio Wave Propagation
2 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace
3 IKI - Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences

U-shaped spectrograms observed by the DEMETER satellite in the equatorial region of the upper ionosphere are presented and explained for the first time. These spectra are characterized by the latitude-dependent upper cutoff frequency that increases with the latitude during nighttime. The observations suggest that this very low frequency wave phenomenon is closely connected with the anomalous increase in cold plasma density at and below the satellite. We show that restricting the analysis to propagation effects is insufficient to explain U-shaped spectra, and other effects, in particular, the collisional wave damping should be taken into consideration. To calculate the wave damping, we use the method of successive approximations. In the first approximation, we calculate the ray trajectory and the wave normal vector along it, using the equations of geometrical optics neglecting collisions. In the second approximation we calculate the collisional wave damping along the precalculated trajectory. We show that the effects of very low frequency wave propagation and attenuation in the equatorial region of the upper ionosphere explain the main features of the phenomenon under discussion.

Domaines: Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]; Physique de l'espace [physics.space-ph]

D. Shklyar, Michel Parrot, E. E Titova. U-Shaped Spectrograms Registered by the DEMETER Satellite: Observational Features and Formation Mechanism. Journal of Geophysical Research Space Physics, 2018, 123 (8), pp.7077-7088. ⟨10.1029/2018ja025656⟩. ⟨insu-01873254⟩