Browsing by Author "Nicolls, Michael J."
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Item Open Access Concurrent observations at the magnetic equator of small-scale irregularities and large-scale depletions associated with equatorial spread F(American Geophysical Union, 2015-11-20) Hickey, Dustin A.; Martinis, Carlos R.; Rodrigues, Fabiano S.; Varney, Roger H.; Milla, Marco; Nicolls, Michael J.; Strømme, Anja; Arratia, Juan F.In 2014 an all-sky imager (ASI) and an Advanced Modular Incoherent Scatter Radar consisting of 14 panels (AMISR-14) system were installed at the Jicamarca Radio Observatory. The ASI measures airglow depletions associated with large-scale equatorial spread F irregularities (10's-100's km), while AMISR-14 detects small-scale irregularities (0.34 m). This study presents simultaneous observations of equatorial spread F (ESF) irregularities at 10-100 km scales using the all sky-imager, at 3 m scales using the JULIA (Jicamarca Unattended Long-term Investigations of the Ionosphere and Atmosphere) radar, and at 0.34 m scales using the AMISR-14 radar. We compare data from the three instruments on the night of 20-21 August, 2014 by locating the radar scattering volume in the optical images. During this night no topside plumes were observed, and we only compare with bottomside ESF. AMISR-14 had five beams perpendicular to the magnetic field covering ~200 km in the east-west direction at 250 km altitude. Comparing the radar data with zenith ASI measurements, we found that most of the echoes occur on the western wall of the depletions with fewer echoes observed the eastern wall and center, contrary to previous comparisons of topside plumes that showed most of the echoes in the center of depleted regions. We attribute these differences to the occurrence of irregularities produced at sub-meter scales by the lower-hybrid-drift instability. Comparisons of the ASI observations with JULIA images show similar results to those found in the AMISR-14 and ASI comparison.Item Restricted Meteor-head echo observations using an antenna compression approach with the 450 MHz Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar(Elsevier, 2009-05) Chau Chong Shing, Jorge Luis; Galindo, Freddy R.; Heinselman, Craig J.; Nicolls, Michael J.In this work we present a novel use of the Poker Flat Incoherent Scatter Radar (PFISR) to study meteor-head echoes with wide (W) beams. Until now, most of the meteor-head echo studies have been performed with High-Power Large-Aperture Radars (HPLARs) using very narrow (N) beams. At PFISR we have implemented an antenna compression approach using a defocusing scheme, similar to Chirp (linear frequency modulation) in pulse compression. The resulting effective beam is times wider than the narrowest PFISR beam. Using the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as a proxy measurement of cross-section, from the combined W and N beam experiments, our main results are: (1) observed meteors in the W beam are approximately half the number of meteors observed in the N beam, (2) we detected 10 times more large cross-section (strong) meteors ( if they were measured by the N mainlobe) than using only the N beam, and (3) more than 15% of the total N meteors were observed in the N sidelobes, therefore being at least 20 dB stronger if they were observed in the N mainlobe. Our results are summarized in a corrected distribution of relative meteor cross-sections as if all of them were observed with the N mainlobe, namely correcting their SNR values depending on where in the beam they were detected (sidelobes or mainlobe). In addition, we show a qualitative meteor cross-section distribution that one can obtain combining W and N beams. The resulting distribution is incomplete, since the W beam is not sensitive enough to detect the very small (weak) meteors, but could provide new information about the large cross-section events.Item Open Access Penetration of the solar wind electric field into the magnetosphere/ionosphere system(American Geophysical Union, 2003-02-19) Kelley, Michael C.; Makela, Jonathan J.; Chau Chong Shing, Jorge Luis; Nicolls, Michael J.On April 17, 2002 an intense, long duration electric field penetration event was captured by the Jicamarca incoherent scatter radar. Other radars in the U. S. chain detected the event as well, although not with as much clarity. The Interplanetary Electric Field (IEF) is available from the ACE satellite as well. The ratio of the dawn‐to‐dusk component of the IEF to the dawn‐to‐dusk electric field in the equatorial ionosphere for periods less than about two hours is 15:1. We suggest that this corresponds to the ratio of the size of the magnetosphere to the length of the connection line between the Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) and the Earth's magnetic field. Simultaneous magnetic field measurements at Piura (off the magnetic equator) and at Jicamarca (under the magnetic equator) in Peru, reveal the same high frequency components and suggest that a chain of stations or an equatorial fleet of satellites in low earth orbit could be used to monitor the connection length continuously.Item Restricted The spectral properties of low-latitude daytime electric fields inferred from magnetometer observations(Elsevier, 2007-03-24) Nicolls, Michael J.; Kelley, Michael C.; Chau Chong Shing, Jorge Luis; Veliz, Oscar; Anderson, David; Anghel, AdelaFour years of magnetometer data from two locations in Peru, one at the equator and one off the equator, have been converted to electric fields and their frequency characteristics (fluctuation spectra) examined. In the frequency range from 0.1 to 30 cycles per hour, the average spectrum monotonically decreases. However, it deviates from a power law in the range 0.3–3 cycles per hour especially for high levels of activity. The integrated power above 0.15 cycles per hour is a strong function of Kp indicating that much of the fluctuations in the ionospheric equatorial field are of solar wind or magnetospheric origin. This result is in agreement with a previous power spectral study of low, middle, and high latitude fields using radars. The observed field strengths are lower than the ones observed in a previous study using balloon data at middle and high latitudes when the fields are projected to the equatorial plane. Simultaneous interplanetary electric field (IEF) data are compared to the equatorial field to determine how strong a relationship exists and to determine the amplitude and phase of their ratio as a function of frequency—an estimate of the average transfer function of the system. This function displays a bandpass-like form with a peak near 0.5 cycles per hour. This peak and evidence for a ringing of the time domain response suggests a weakly resonant system indicating some capacitance in addition to the inductance of the ring current and the resistance of the ionosphere. Case studies show that application of this function to IEF data yields good results and supports the notion that the response of the equatorial field to long-duration IEF polarities can last for many hours. Application of the function to test inputs such as pulses and triangle waves support this result. At high frequencies, we suggest that mapping of small-scale MHD turbulence is less effective than high frequency related transitions in the IEF.