Observations of low-latitude plasma density enhancements and their associated plasma drifts

Abstract

Plasma density structures are frequently encountered in the nighttime low-latitude ionosphere by probes on the Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite. Of particular interest to us here are plasma density enhancements, which are typically observed 15 away from the magnetic equator. The low inclination of the C/NOFS satellite offers an unprecedented opportunity to examine these structures and their associated electric fields and plasma velocities, including their field-aligned components, along an east-west trajectory. Among other observations, the data reveal a clear asymmetry in the velocity structure within and around these density enhancements. Previous data have shown that the peak perturbation in drift velocity associated with a density enhancement occurs simultaneously both perpendicular and parallel to the magnetic field, while the results in this paper show that the peak perturbation in parallel flow typically occurs 25-100 km to the east of the peak perpendicular flow. The absence of such a longitudinal offset in previous observations suggests that multiple physical mechanisms may be responsible for creating plasma density enhancements as observed by satellite-borne instrumentation. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.