Two components of ionospheric plasma structuring at midlatitudes observed during the large magnetic storm of October 30, 2003

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Subscriber Access to Full Article (Nonsubscribers may purchase for $9.00, Includes print PDF, file size: 451251 bytes) GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 32, L12S06, doi:10.1029/2004GL021669, 2005 Two components of ionospheric plasma structuring at midlatitudes observed during the large magnetic storm of October 30, 2003 Su. Basu Center for Space Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA S. Basu Space Vehicles Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Hanscom Air Force Base, Massachusetts, USA J. J. Makela Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA R. E. Sheehan Institute for Scientific Research, Boston College, Newton Center, Massachusetts, USA E. MacKenzie Institute for Scientific Research, Boston College, Newton Center, Massachusetts, USA P. Doherty Institute for Scientific Research, Boston College, Newton Center, Massachusetts, USA J. W. Wright Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado/NOAA, Boulder, Colorado, USA M. J. Keskinen Charged Particle Physics Branch, Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D. C., USA D. Pallamraju Center for Space Physics, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA L. J. Paxton Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, USA F. T. Berkey Space Dynamics Laboratory, Department of Physics, Utah State University, Logan, Utah, USA Abstract We consider VHF amplitude scintillations, GPS phase fluctuations, ionosonde measurements, maps of GPS total electron content (TEC), observations of daytime aurora and TIMED GUVI images during the large magnetic storms of October 29–31, 2003, and find two distinct classes of plasma processes that produce midlatitude ionospheric irregularities. One is associated with auroral plasma processes; the other, with storm enhanced density (SED) gradients, a part of which occur in close proximity to sub-auroral polarization stream (SAPS) electric fields as discussed by J. C. Foster et al. (2002). We analyze in detail the storm event of October 30, 2003. The SAPS-associated plasma structures may occur by an ion temperature gradient convective instability (M. J. Keskinen et al., 2004), but structuring by auroral processes requires elucidation. Received 1 October 2004; accepted 28 February 2005; published 29 April 2005. Index Terms: 2431 Ionosphere: Ionosphere/magnetosphere interactions (2736); 7954 Space Weather: Magnetic storms (2788); 2439 Ionosphere: Ionospheric irregularities; 2437 Ionosphere: Ionospheric dynamics; 7934 Space Weather: Impacts on technological systems. Subscriber Access to Full Article (Nonsubscribers may purchase for $9.00, Includes print PDF, file size: 451251 bytes) Citation: Basu, Su., et al. (2005), Two components of ionospheric plasma structuring at midlatitudes observed during the large magnetic storm of October 30, 2003, Geophys. Res. Lett., 32, L12S06, doi:10.1029/2004GL021669. Copyright 2005 by the American Geophysical Union.

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