Ionospheric signatures of a plasmaspheric plume over Europe

Abstract

Previously, ionospheric signatures of plasmaspheric plumes were reported only at the North American longitude sector. This led to the hypothesis that the geomagnetic field configuration at those longitudes played a vital role in the observation of plasmaspheric plume signatures only over the American continent. Combining ground-based GPS total electron content (TEC), EISCAT incoherent scattering radar (ISR), and DMSP F15 ion drift meter observations we have observed greatly elevated density over the European continent during storm recovery phase on 12 September 2005. The TEC seen over Europe has a tongue of enhanced ionization extending to higher latitudes, which is identical to the plasmaspheric plume signatures that have been often observed over North America. Therefore, our observations clearly demonstrate that ionospheric signatures of plasmaspheric plumes are not limited to the North American sector and suggest that they may be observed at any longitude as long as a dense array of instruments are available to identify these signatures. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.