Variations of electron density and temperature in ionosphere based on the DEMETER ISL data

Yufei He (1) , Dongmei Yang (1) , Rong Zhu (1) , Jiadong Qian , Michel Parrot (2)

1 Institute of Geophysics, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, 100081, China
2 LPCE - Laboratoire de physique et chimie de l'environnement

Observations of the Langmuir Probe Instrument (ISL, Instrument Sonde de Langmuir) onboard the DEMETER satellite during four years from 2006 to 2009 were used to analyze the tempo-spatial variations of electron density (Ne) and temperature (Te) in the ionosphere. Twenty four research bins with each covering an area with 10° in longitude and 2° in latitude were selected to study the spatial distributions of Ne and Te. The results indicate that both Ne and Te have strong annual variations in the topside ionosphere at 660 km altitude. The semiannual anomaly and equinoctial asymmetry which are usually well known as the features of F-layer also exist in the topside ionosphere at low- and mid-latitudes. The yearly variation of Ne is opposite to the peak electron density of the F2-layer (NmF2) at higher latitudes in daytime and both are similar in nighttime. Also the yearly variations of Te at low-latitude are contrary to that at 600 km in daytime and similar in nighttime. An interesting feature of nighttime Te at low-latitude is an obvious annual variation in the northern hemisphere and semiannual variation in the southern hemisphere. The yearly variations of Te in daytime have negative and positive correlation with Ne at mid- and high-latitudes, respectively. Both Ne and Te in the neighborhood bins at the same latitude have a high correlation. In ionospheric events analyzing, this information may help to understand the characteristics of the variation and to distinguish the reliable abnormality from the normal background map.

Mots clés: seasonal variation; annual variation; spatial distribution; Ne; Te; DEMETER satellite

Domaines: Planète et Univers [physics]

Yufei He, Dongmei Yang, Rong Zhu, Jiadong Qian, Michel Parrot. Variations of electron density and temperature in ionosphere based on the DEMETER ISL data. Earthquake Science, 2010, 23 (4), pp.349-355. ⟨10.1007/s11589-010-0732-8⟩. ⟨insu-03218175⟩