GPS phase scintillation at high latitudes during geomagnetic storms of 7-17 March 2012-Part 2: Interhemispheric comparison

• Published in: Annales Geophysicae
• Main Authors: Prikryl, P., Ghoddousi-Fard, R., Spogli, L., Mitchell, C. N., Li, G., Ning, B., Cilliers, P. J., Sreeja, V., Aquino, M., Terkildsen, M., Jayachandran, P. T., Jiao, Y., Morton, Y. T., Ruohoniemi, J. Michael, Thomas, E. G., Zhang, Y., Weatherwax, A. T., Alfonsi, L., De Franceschi, G., Romano, V.
• Other Authors: Electrical and Computer Engineering
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: European Geosciences Union 2015
• Subjects: Ionosphere; ionospheric disturbances; ionospheric irregularities; polar ionosphere; Antarctic; Canada; SANAE; Antarc*; Macquarie Island; South African National Antarctic Programme
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10919/94615; https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-33-657-2015

During the ascending phase of solar cycle 24, a series of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) in the period 7-17 March 2012 caused geomagnetic storms that strongly affected high-latitude ionosphere in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. GPS phase scintillation was observed at northern and southern high latitudes by arrays of GPS ionospheric scintillation and TEC monitors (GISTMs) and geodetic-quality GPS receivers sampling at 1 Hz. Mapped as a function of magnetic latitude and magnetic local time (MLT), the scintillation was observed in the ionospheric cusp, the tongue of ionization fragmented into patches, sun-aligned arcs in the polar cap, and nightside auroral oval and subauroral latitudes. Complementing a companion paper (Prikryl et al., 2015a) that focuses on the high-latitude ionospheric response to variable solar wind in the North American sector, interhemispheric comparison reveals commonalities as well as differences and asymmetries between the northern and southern high latitudes, as a consequence of the coupling between the solar wind and magnetosphere. The interhemispheric asymmetries are caused by the dawn-dusk component of the interplanetary magnetic field controlling the MLT of the cusp entry of the storm-enhanced density plasma into the polar cap and the orientation relative to the noon-midnight meridian of the tongue of ionization. Canada Foundation for InnovationCanada Foundation for Innovation; New Brunswick Innovation Foundation; National Science FoundationNational Science Foundation (NSF) [PLR-1248062]; NSFNational Science Foundation (NSF) [AGS-0838219, AGS-0946900]; national scientific funding agency of Australia; national scientific funding agency of Canada; national scientific funding agency of China; national scientific funding agency of France; national scientific funding agency of Japan; national scientific funding agency of South Africa; national scientific funding agency of United Kingdom; national scientific funding agency of United States of America; Natural Resources Canada, Earth Sciences Sector (NRCan ESS)Natural Resources Canada [20140371]; Engineering and Physical Sciences Research CouncilEngineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) [EP/H003479/1, EP/E007902/1, EP/H003304/1, TS/G002592/1]; Natural Environment Research CouncilNERC Natural Environment Research Council [NE/F015321/1]; Science and Technology Facilities CouncilScience & Technology Facilities Council (STFC) [ST/H003770/1, PP/D002230/1] Infrastructure funding for CHAIN was provided by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. CHAIN and CGSM operation is conducted in collaboration with the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The infrastructure for the GISTM at SANAE was provided by the South African National Antarctic Programme. The GISTM of southern auroral oval station Macquarie Island is operated by the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Siena College gratefully acknowledges support from the National Science Foundation under award PLR-1248062. The Virginia Tech authors acknowledge the support through NSF awards AGS-0838219 and AGS-0946900. The authors acknowledge the use of SuperDARN data. SuperDARN is a collection of radars funded by national scientific funding agencies of Australia, Canada, China, France, Japan, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The DMSP particle detectors were designed by Dave Hardy of the Air Force Research Laboratory, and the data were obtained from Johns Hopkins University Applied Research Laboratory. The International GNSS Service (IGS) and its contributing organizations, including Denmark Technical University National Space Institute, are thanked for 1 Hz GPS data. This work was supported by the Public Safety Geosciences program of the Natural Resources Canada, Earth Sciences Sector (NRCan ESS contribution number 20140371).