Rapid reconstruction of electric potentials over an incoherent scatter radar field-of-view

Abstract

A new technique is proposed for the rapid reconstruction of ionospheric electric fields from plasma drift measurements made by the Sondrestrøm incoherent scatter radar. We utilized the adaptive distribution of electric charges over and beyond of the radar field-of-view using a well-known method of regularization developed for solving the ill-posed problems. In this approach, no a priori assumptions are required concerning the regime of tangential components in the plasma drifts (i.e., radial electric fields). The test model calculations and comparisons of the reconstructed electric fields with ground-based geomagnetic field variations, global ionospheric convection modeling, and direct satellite observations demonstrate good results and, therefore, usefulness of the developed technique. This technique could be implemented as a tool for operational monitoring of the overall ionospheric convection dynamics within the incoherent (or coherent) radars field-of-view. Copyright © The Society of Geomagnetism and Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences (SGEPSS); The Seismological Society of Japan; The Volcanological Society of Japan; The Geodetic Society of Japan; The Japanese Society for Planetary Sciences.