Skip to main content
Article
Mid- and low-latitude prompt-penetration ionospheric zonalplasma drifts
Geophysical Research Letters (1998)
  • Bela G. Fejer, Utah State University
  • L. Scherliess
Abstract
We have used ion drift observations from the DE-2 satellite to determine the latitudinal variation and the temporal evolution of mid- and low-latitude prompt penetration zonal plasma drifts driven by magnetospheric electric fields. Our results indicate that sudden increases in convection lead to predominantly westward perturbation drifts which decrease equartorwards and have largest amplitudes in the dusk-midnight sector. The diurnal perturbation drift patterns shift to later local times with increasing storm time and decay to new quasi-equilibrium values in about 2 hours, as the ring current readjusts to the new polar cap potential. The daily and latitudinal variations and temporal evolution of the DE-2 prompt penetration drifts are generally in good agreement with predictions from the Rice Convection Model, although the experimental results show larger amplitudes and longer shielding time constants.
Keywords
  • Mid,
  • low,
  • latitude,
  • promt,
  • penetration,
  • ionosphere,
  • zonal,
  • plasma,
  • drifts
Disciplines
Publication Date
August 15, 1998
Publisher Statement
Copyright 1998 by the American Geophysical Union. DOI: 10.1029/98GL02325
Citation Information
Fejer, B. G., and L. Scherliess, Mid- and low-latitude prompt-penetration ionospheric zonal plasma drifts, Geophys. Res. Lett., 25, 3071, 1998.