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Article
Interferometer studies of equatorial Fregion irregularities and drifts
Geophysical Research Letters
(1981)
Abstract
A radar interferometer technique developed at Jicamarca, Peru and first used to study electrojet irregularities has now been used successfully to study plasma turbulence in the equatorial F region. Our first results have shown that the most ‘turbulent’ echoes appear to come from a region that extends for tens of kilometers in altitude but for only a kilometer or less in the east-west direction. This slab may very well be the wall of a depleted region, a plasma ‘bubble’. Sometimes the irregularities can be tracked as they move eastward or westward. Velocity profiles for the evening period obtained in this way show a strong shear, with westward velocities at the lowest altitudes observed and eastward velocities above. A plausible explanation for this shear is that the westward drifts are driven by electric fields produced by westward E region winds and mapped up along magnetic field lines, while at higher heights, where the electron density is greater, the drifts are controlled by the F region dynamo driven by eastward winds.
Keywords
- Interferometer,
- equator,
- F region,
- studies,
- irregularities,
- drifts
Disciplines
Publication Date
April, 1981
Publisher Statement
Copyright 1981 by the American Geophysical Union.
DOI: 10.1029/GL008i004p00377
Citation Information
Kudeki, E., B. G. Fejer, D. T. Farley, and H. M. Ierkic, Interferometer studies of equatorial F
region irregularities and drifts, Geophys. Res. Lett., 8, 377, 1981.