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This study reports unexpected strong longitudinal structures from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) derived total electron content (TEC) observations in the low-latitude ionosphere over Asia. The observations during 2019–2020 show diverse patterns in the zonal difference of regional TEC, even under geomagnetically quiet conditions. The TEC in the northern hemisphere occasionally exhibits drastic zonal gradients. The intense regional gradients in TEC span a longitudinal extent of about 20°. The higher values may appear on the east or the west side. Strong zonal gradients may appear in all seasons, regardless of geomagnetically quiet or active conditions. The 15 December 2019 and 16 March 2020 cases depict an intense zonal differences cluster in the narrow latitudinal band of 16°N to 28°N, spanning a regional scale smaller than the normal longitudinal structures. In contrast, the Global Ionospheric Maps (GIMs) with a longitudinal resolution of 5° show a much flatter zonal picture. Such intense and regional-scale zonal structures in the low-latitude ionosphere call for a high zonal resolution of GIMs in terms of better geographically distributed observations. Notably, no counterpart regional structures are found at the conjugated points in the southern hemisphere during the two cases. Although the physical drivers are not certain, the appearance only in the northern hemisphere possibly excludes the dominant contribution to forming the regional structures from the equatorial electric field.

The Martian ionosphere was actively detected by Mars Advanced Radar for Subsurface and Ionosphere Sounding (MARSIS) aboard the Mars Express. The detected echo signal of the MARSIS at an epoch is presented as a function of frequency and time delay to form an ionogram. Some MARSIS ionograms have been processed to obtain the electron density profiles of the Martian topside ionosphere. Unfortunately, more than half of the records cannot be processed with current methods due to the lack of local plasma density information at spacecraft altitude. In this work, we employ a piece-wise exponent to describe the electron density profile of the Martian topside ionosphere. The piece-wise exponent used in our method can reasonably capture the altitude structure of the Martian topside ionosphere, which has been validated with the MGS and MAVEN data. In an altitude regime of lower than 200 km, the average absolute height error of the same electron density between MGS data and fitted profiles is 0.006 km, and the average relative error is 0.008%. In an altitude regime of higher than 200 km, the average absolute height error of the same electron density between MGS data and fitted profiles is 0.55 km, and the average relative error is −0.1%. Based on the altitude structure knowledge of the Martian topside ionosphere, we put forward a new method to invert electron density profiles from MARSIS ionograms with/without local plasma density information. Compared with the previous results, the average absolute difference in the peak height of the retrieved profile is 7.38 km, within the margin of the MARSIS height resolution of 13.8 km. The average relative difference is only 3%. The application of the new method can greatly improve the utilization rate of MARSIS ionogram records.

In this study, two ionospheric nighttime enhancement (INE) events at low latitudes are selected to investigate their spatial features through the observations from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers and ionosondes. For the first time, we present the detailed spatial pictures of premidnight and postmidnight INEs under geomagnetically quiet conditions. The two INE events have the maximum extents of about 11° × 34° and 17° × 25° (longitude × latitude), respectively. Dramatic latitudinal and longitudinal features are revealed in the two INEs. We perform a comparison between the products of Global Ionospheric Maps (GIMs) and total electron content (TEC) measurement from GNSS receivers. However, GIMs fail to capture the TEC distribution during INEs owing to their limited spatial and temporal resolution. Considering the extent of INEs from the observations, the spherical harmonic (SH) expansion adopted by the GIM models needs to upgrade the degree and order to 36. The pixel-based methods developed from two GIM models are required to reduce their grid size for higher spatial resolution. The recommended time interval is shorter than 30 min. Among seven GIMs, CODG and JPLG maps generally have the best performance in reproducing the latitudinal structure of the ionosphere.

Monitoring the dynamics of the productivity of ocean water and how it affects fisheries is essential for management. It requires data on proper spatial and temporal scales, which can be provided by operational ocean colour satellites. However, accurate productivity data from ocean colour imagery is only possible with proper validation of, for instance, the atmospheric correction applied to the images. In situ water reflectance data are of great value due to the requirements for validation and reflectance is traditionally measured with the Surface Acquisition System (SAS) solar tracker system. Recently, an application for mobile devices, “HydroColor”, was developed to acquire water reflectance data. We examined the accuracy of the water reflectance measures acquired by HydroColor with the help of both trained and untrained citizens, under different environmental conditions. We used water reflectance data acquired by SAS solar tracker and by HydroColor onboard the BC ferry Queen of Oak Bay from July to September 2016. Monte Carlo permutation F tests were used to assess whether the differences between measurements collected by SAS solar tracker and HydroColor with citizens were significant. Results showed that citizen HydroColor measurements were accurate in red, green, and blue bands, as well as red/green and red/blue ratios under different environmental conditions. In addition, we found that a trained citizen obtained higher quality HydroColor data especially under clear skies at noon.