U.S. flag An official website of the United States government.
Official websites use .gov

A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS

A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

i

Quasi 6‐Day Planetary Wave Oscillations in Equatorial Plasma Irregularities



Details

  • Journal Title:
    Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
  • Personal Author:
  • NOAA Program & Office:
    CIRES (Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences)
  • Description:
    The influence of atmospheric planetary waves on the occurrence of irregularities in the low latitude ionosphere is investigated using Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with thermosphere‐ionosphere eXtension (WACCM‐X) simulations and Global Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) observations. GOLD observations of equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) exhibit a ∼6–8 day periodicity during January–February 2021. Analysis of WACCM‐X simulations, which are constrained to reproduce realistic weather variability in the lower atmosphere, reveals that this coincides with an amplification of the westward propagating wavenumber‐1 quasi‐six day wave (Q6DW) in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). The WACCM‐X simulated Rayleigh‐Taylor (R‐T) instability growth rate, considered as a proxy of EPB occurrence, is found to exhibit a ∼6‐day periodicity that is coincident with the enhanced Q6DW in the MLT. Additional WACCM‐X simulations performed with fixed solar and geomagnetic activity demonstrate that the ∼6‐day periodicity in the R‐T instability growth rate is related to the forcing from the lower atmosphere. The simulations suggest that the Q6DW influences the day‐to‐day formation of EPBs through interaction with the migrating semidiurnal tide. This leads to periodic oscillations in the zonal winds, resulting in periodic variability in the strength of the prereversal enhancement, which influences the R‐T instability growth rate and EPBs. The results demonstrate that atmospheric planetary waves, and their interaction with atmospheric tides, can have a significant impact on the day‐to‐day variability of EPBs.
  • Source:
    Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics, 129(4)
  • DOI:
  • ISSN:
    2169-9380 ; 2169-9402
  • Format:
    pdf
  • Publisher:
    American Geophysical Union (AGU)
  • Document Type:
    Journal Article
  • Rights Information:
    Other
  • Compliance:
    Library
  • Main Document Checksum:
    urn:sha-512:2251cebad289d08587405d642654d0af97ee0540a5045fe1bf73cfb0fd70b110fb3ab3d7a3f12496c5ababda114cf093e67a1725fe0fb83792b1036ba09ed80e
  • Download URL:
  • File Type:
    Filetype[PDF - 3.97 MB ]
PREVIOUS
ON THIS PAGE
Details
The NOAA IR serves as an archival repository of NOAA-published products including scientific findings, journal articles, guidelines, recommendations, or other information authored or co-authored by NOAA or funded partners. As a repository, the NOAA IR retains documents in their original published format to ensure public access to scientific information.
BACK TO TOP