Average vertical and zonal F region plasma drifts over Jicamarca

Abstract

The seasonal averages of the equatorial F region vertical and zonal plasma drifts are determined using extensive incoherent scatter radar observations from Jicamarca during 1968–1988. The late afternoon and nighttime vertical and zonal drifts are strongly dependent on the 10.7-cm solar flux. We show that the evening prereversal enhancement of vertical drifts increases linearly with solar flux during equinox but tends to saturate for large fluxes during southern hemisphere winter. We examine in detail, for the first time, the seasonal variation of the zonal plasma drifts and their dependence on solar flux and magnetic activity. The seasonal effects on the zonal drifts are most pronounced in the midnight-morning sector. The nighttime eastward drifts increase with solar flux for all seasons but decrease slightly with magnetic activity. The daytime westward drifts are essentially independent of season, solar cycle, and magnetic activity.""The second-generation sounding system (SOUSY) 53.5-MHz mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere (MST) radar at 78N, 16E on Svalbard has recently completed its inaugural summer, 2008, of polar mesospheric summer echoes (PMSE) observations. Here PMSE observations have been assembled in order to identify dates of the earliest and latest occurrences and how the frequency of PMSE occurrence correlates with dynamics and temperature, which are available from the collocated Nippon/Norway Svalbard Meteor 31-MHz Radar (NSMR). We find strong correlations between preferred PMSE altitude and low temperature, and between equatorward flow and occurrence rate. Temperature drops cause increases in PMSE occurrence: for the height interval 82–92 km, a drop of around 7 K increases the occurrence, typically by 1–2% d−1 and similarly for a 1 m s−1 increase in equatorward wind. A temperature drop of 5 K at 90 km altitude results in a lowering of the underlying preferred PMSE altitude by 1 km. This study therefore qualifies, at least for 78N, 16E and 2008, the dependence of PMSE occurrence rates and preferred heights on 90 km temperature and dynamics.