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It is well-known that equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) are highly correlated to the post-sunset rise of the ionosphere on a climatological basis. However, when proceeding to the daily EPB development, what controls the day-to-day/longitudinal variability of EPBs remains a puzzle. In this study, we investigate the underlying physics responsible for the day-to-day/longitudinal variability of EPBs using the Sami3 is A Model of the Ionosphere (SAMI3) and the Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with thermosphere-ionosphere eXtension (WACCM-X). Simulation results on October 20, 22, and 24, 2020 were presented. SAMI3/WACCM-X self-consistently generated midnight EPBs on October 20 and 24, displaying irregular and regular spatial distributions, respectively. However, EPBs are absent on October 22. We investigate the role of gravity waves on upwelling growth and EPB development and discuss how gravity waves contribute to the distributions of EPBs. Of particular significance is that we found the westward wind associated with solar terminator waves and gravity waves causes midnight vertical drift enhancement and collisional shear instability, which provides conditions favorable for upwelling growth and EPB development. The converging and diverging winds associated with solar terminator waves and midnight temperature maximum also affect the longitudinal distribution of EPBs. The absence of EPBs on October 22 is related to the weak upward drift induced by weak westward wind associated with solar terminator waves.

Assessing space weather modeling capability is a key element in improving existing models and developing new ones. In order to track improvement of the models and investigate impacts of forcing, from the lower atmosphere below and from the magnetosphere above, on the performance of ionosphere-thermosphere models, we expand our previous assessment for 2013 March storm event [Shim et al., 2018]. In this study, we evaluate new simulations from upgraded models (Coupled Thermosphere Ionosphere Plasmasphere Electrodynamics (CTIPe) model version 4.1 and Global Ionosphere Thermosphere Model (GITM) version 21.11) and from NCAR Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with thermosphere and ionosphere extension (WACCM-X) version 2.2 including 8 simulations in the previous study. A simulation of NCAR Thermosphere-Ionosphere-Electrodynamics General Circulation Model version 2 (TIE-GCM 2) is also included for comparison with WACCM-X. TEC and foF2 changes from quiet-time background are considered to evaluate the model performance on the storm impacts. For evaluation, we employ 4 skill scores: Correlation coefficient (CC), root-mean square error (RMSE), ratio of the modeled to observed maximum percentage changes (Yield), and timing error(TE). It is found that the models tend to underestimate the storm-time enhancements of foF2 (F2-layer critical frequency) and TEC (Total Electron Content) and to predict foF2 and/or TEC better in the North America but worse in the Southern Hemisphere. The ensemble simulation for TEC is comparable to results from a data assimilation model (Utah State University-Global Assimilation of Ionospheric Measurement (USU-GAIM)) with differences in skill score less than 3% and 6% for CC and RMSE, respectively.

Equatorial ionospheric irregularities is an important space weather phenomenon, which can disrupt GNSS and communication systems. COSMIC 2 GNSS RO observations are affected via scintillations in signal amplitudes and phases. At the same time, we can use these scintillations to monitor and geolocate the ionospheric irregularities, which are of great value to the space weather services. Geolocation of the irregularities based on the RO signals is difficult, as any irregularities along the line between the GNSS and RO satellite can cause scintillation. Several geolocation methods are known. A back propagation (BP) method to geolocate the irregularities originally developed in 2001 and applied for GPS/MET RO data is being modified and applied for COSMIC 2 scintillation data. Because the equatorial irregularities are often associated with plasma bubbles, which are visible to the NASA UV imager GOLD, we have been using the GOLD images to validate the BP geolocation method. In this presentation, we will show the progress of recent validation effort of the BP geolocation method by comparing the COSMIC 2 geolocated irregularities with plasma bubbles in GOLD UV observations. Though, GOLD observations are only available in the American sector, COSMIC 2 observations can be used geolocate ionospheric irregularities throughout the equatorial and low latitudes

The Naval Research Laboratory first-principles ionosphere model SAMI3/ESF is performed to study the interaction between the nighttime medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) and equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs). The synthetic dynamo currents are imposed into the potential equation to induce polarization electric fields for generating the MSTIDs. Simulations demonstrate that the MSTIDs can inhibit the upward growth of EPBs; however, MSTIDs alone are insufficient to explain the disappearance of EPBs. We found that the meridional winds likely contribute to the disappearance of MSTIDs by reducing the background electron density and polarization electric fields within the EPBs. Then, the MSTIDs transport plasma to fill the EPB depletions up via E × B drifts. Both MSTIDs and meridional winds are necessary to comprehend the underlying mechanism of EPB disappearance. We also found that the zonal and vertical E × B drifts within the MSTIDs affect the morphology of EPBs, leading to a reverse-C shape structure.

The Naval Research Laboratory first-principles ionosphere model SAMI3/ESF is performed to study the interaction between the nighttime medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) and equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs). The synthetic Es layer instability driven by the external dynamo currents are imposed into the potential equation to induce polarization electric fields for generating the MSTIDs. Simulations demonstrate that the MSTIDs alone can inhibit the upward growth of EPBs, but are insufficient to explain the disappearance of EPBs. The meridional winds are necessary to comprehend the underlying mechanism. The zonal and vertical E × B drifts of MSTIDs also affect the morphology of EPBs that could result in a reverse-C shape structure.

All sky camera observations carried out over Taiwan showed intense equatorial plasma bubbles (EPB) in 630.0 nm airglow images on consecutive nights of 13-16 March, 2015, but was absent in the following night of 17 March when St. Patrick's Day magnetic storm occurred. Rate of total electron content (TEC) index by using Global Positioning System (GPS) network data also confirmed the absence of irregularities on the night 17 March. The results however revealed strong irregularities over Indian sector on the same night. Flux tube integrated Rayleigh-Taylor instability growth rates computed using the prior (forecast) state of Thermosphere-Ionosphere Electrodynamics General Circulation Model output after assimilating the GPS-TEC measurements also agree with the observations, showing smaller values over Taiwan and larger values over India on the night of 17 March. The ionospheric response to the storm over Taiwan that resulted in the apparent inhibition of EPB is investigated in this study by using the data assimilation output. Results indicate that on the night of the magnetic storm, pre-reversal enhancement of zonal electric field over Taiwan was weaker when compared to that over India. Further analysis suggests that the absence of enhancement in the zonal electric field could be due to westward penetration electric field in response to rapid northward turning of interplanetary magnetic field that occurred during the dusk period over Taiwan.

We report the first observation of concentric traveling ionospheric disturbances (CTIDs) triggered by the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on 17 January 2016. The rocket triggered ionospheric disturbances show shock acoustic wave signature in the time rate change (time derivative) of total electron content (TEC), followed by CTIDs in the 8–15 minutes bandpass filtering of TEC. The CTIDs propagated northward with phase velocity of 241–617 m/s and reached distances more than 1000 km away from the source on the rocket trajectory. The wave characteristics of CTIDs with periods of 10.5–12.7 minutes and wavelength ~200–400 km agree well with the gravity wave dispersion relation. The optimal wave source searching and gravity wave ray-tracing technique suggested that the CTIDs have multiple sources which are originated from ~38–120 km altitude before and after the ignition of the 2nd stage rocket, ~200 seconds after the rocket was launched.

Two remarkable typhoon-induced traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) with concentric and northwest-southeast (NW-SE) alignments, respectively associated with concentric gravity waves (CGWs) and ionosphere instabilities possibly seeded by CGWs, were observed in total electron content (TEC) derived from ground-based GNSS networks in Taiwan and Japan when the Category-5 Super Typhoon Nepartak approached Taiwan on 7 July 2016. The concentric TIDs (CTIDs) first appear with horizontal phase velocities of ~161–200 m/s, horizontal wavelengths of ~160–270 km, and periods of ~15–22 min during 08:00–11:20 UT. Following the CTIDs, the NW-SE aligned nighttime medium-scale TIDs (MSTIDs) are formed on the west-edge of the CTIDs over the Taiwan Strait during 11:30–14:00 UT. It is suggested that the MSTIDs are produced by the electrodynamical coupling of Perkins instability and CGW-induced polarization electric fields. This study proposes connections of typhoon-induced CTIDs and subsequently occurring MSTIDs in the low-latitude ionosphere.

Concentric traveling ionosphere disturbances (CTIDs) in total electron content (TEC) triggered by Super Typhoon Meranti on 13 September 2016 are detected using the ground-based Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) network in Taiwan. The CTIDs emanated outwards before the typhoon landfall and lasted for more than 10 hours. The characteristics of CTIDs agree with the gravity wave theory and exhibit spatial and temporal scales in wave periods of ~8–30 minutes, horizontal wavelengths of ~160–200 km, and horizontal phase velocities of ~106–220 m/s. We also observe the CTIDs showing the stationary wave character. Broad spectra of CTIDs are excited after the rainbands of typhoon impinged on Central Mountain Range (CMR) of Taiwan. The ray-tracing technique confirms that the CTIDs were excited by convective clouds, spiral rainbands and the eyewall of Typhoon Meranti. This study provides new evidence of typhoon-induced concentric gravity waves in the ionosphere.

A correlation study is performed to investigate possible connections between the stratospheric gravity waves and the ionospheric plasma bubble induced GPS signal scintillations. Using the COSMIC 1 neutral temperature data (10–30 km), we extract gravity wave amplitudes with vertical wavelengths from 2.5 to 10 km within the latitudinal range from 37.5S to 37.5N. We then calculated the occurrence of high GPS L1 amplitude scintillation (S4 > 0.2) in the equatorial region (25S and 25N). The high S4 values showed consistent higher correlations with gravity waves at the equator than those away from the equator for all vertical wavelengths between 2010 and 2013. While the peak correlation is only ~0.2, the consistency over different wavelengths and years suggests a possible link, which could be through seeding of plasma bubbles and/or modulation of the neutral wind dynamo by gravity waves. We see the need for further study based on statistics of simultaneous observations of gravity waves, ionospheric scintillations, and other ionospheric and thermospheric parameters, which can lead to a better understanding of the plasma bubble formation mechanism.

The Abel inversion of ionospheric electron density profiles with the assumption of spherical symmetry applied for radio occultation soundings could introduce a greater systematic error or sometimes artifacts if the occultation rays trespass regions with larger horizontal gradients in electron density. The aided Abel inversions have been proposed by considering the asymmetry ratio derived from ionospheric total electron content (TEC) or peak density (NmF2) of reconstructed observation maps since knowledge of the horizontal asymmetry in ambient ionospheric density could mitigate the inversion error. Here we propose a new aided Abel inversion using three-dimensional time dependent electron density (Ne) based on the climatological maps constructed from previous observations, as it has an advantage of providing altitudinal information on the horizontal asymmetry. Improvement of proposed Ne-aided Abel inversion and comparisons with electron density profiles inverted from the NmF2- and TEC-aided inversions are studied using observation system simulation experiment (OSSE). Comparison results show that all three aided Abel inversions improve the ionospheric profiling by mitigating the artificial plasma caves and negative electron density in the daytime E region. The equatorial ionization anomaly crests in the F region become more distinct. The statistical results show that the Ne-aided Abel inversion has less mean and RMSE of error percentage above 250 km altitudes, and the performances for all aided Abel inversions are similar below 250 km altitudes.