Three-dimensional ionospheric electron density structure of the Weddell Sea Anomaly

This paper provides the first three-dimensional description of the ionospheric density structure of the Weddell Sea Anomaly (WSA). The WSA is characterized by a nighttime ionospheric density greater than that in daytime in the Weddell Sea region around the Antarctic Peninsula during the southern hem...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics
Other Authors: Lin, C. (author), Liu, J. (author), Cheng, C. (author), Chen, C. (author), Liu, C. (author), Wang, Wenbin (author), Burns, Alan (author), Lei, J. (author)
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Geophysical Union 2009
Subjects:
FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC
Weddell Sea Anomaly
Ionospheric anomaly
Antarctic
Antarctic Peninsula
The Antarctic
Weddell
Weddell Sea
Antarc*
Antarctica
Online Access:http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-002-415
https://doi.org/10.1029/2008JA013455
Description
Summary:This paper provides the first three-dimensional description of the ionospheric density structure of the Weddell Sea Anomaly (WSA). The WSA is characterized by a nighttime ionospheric density greater than that in daytime in the Weddell Sea region around the Antarctic Peninsula during the southern hemisphere summer. It was first observed by ground-based ionosondes located in the Antarctica back in the 1950s and was further investigated by two-dimensional maps over the oceans using TEC measurements collected by the TOPEX/Poseidon recently. Although these TEC maps have provided two-dimensional views for tracking the time-evolution and spatial coverage of the WSA, the vertical distribution of this peculiar feature is still unavailable. With the vertical ionospheric density profiles observed by the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC, three-dimensional density structure of the WSA is presented here for the first time. Meanwhile, a similar WSA signature is observed in the northern and eastern hemisphere during June solstice by both the GPS-TEC and the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC electron density observations. From the observed altitudinal structure of the WSA during 1800 - 2400 LT and the similar feature occurred in the opposite hemisphere suggest that the southward offset of the magnetic equator with respect to the geographic equator plays a major role for the WSA formation.

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