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Plasma Structure Decay Rates in the Equatorial Ionosphere are Strongly Coupled by Turbulence
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  • Magnus Fagernes Ivarsen,
  • Jean-Pierre St.- Maurice,
  • Jaeheung Park,
  • Jeffrey Klenzing,
  • Yaqi Jin,
  • Woo Kyoung Lee
Magnus Fagernes Ivarsen
University of Oslo

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Jean-Pierre St.- Maurice
U of Saskatchewan
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Jaeheung Park
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
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Jeffrey Klenzing
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
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Yaqi Jin
University of Oslo
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Woo Kyoung Lee
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute
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Abstract

Equatorial plasma irregularities in the ionospheric F-region proliferate after sunset, causing the most apparent radio scintillation “hot-spot” in geospace. These irregularities are caused by plasma instabilities, and appear mostly in the form of under-densities that rise up from the F-region’s bottomside. After an irregularity production peak at sunset, the amplitude of the resulting turbulence decays with time. Analyzing a large database of plasma irregularity spectra observed by one of the European Space Agency’s Swarm satellites, we have applied a novel but conceptually simple statistical analysis to the data, finding in the process that post-sunset turbulence in the F-region tends to decay with a uniform, scale-independent rate at night, thereby confirming and extending the results from earlier case studies. Our results should be of utility for large-scale space weather modelling efforts that are unable to resolve turbulent effects.
26 Mar 2024Submitted to ESS Open Archive
12 Apr 2024Published in ESS Open Archive