The influence of atmospheric planetary waves on the occurrence of irregularities in the low latitude ionosphere is investigated using Whole Atmosphere Community Climate Model with thermosphere-ionosphere eXtension (WACCM-X) simulations and Global Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) observations. GOLD observations of equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) exhibit a ~6-8 day periodicity during January-February 2021. Analysis of WACCM-X simulations, which are constrained to reproduce realistic weather variability in the lower atmosphere, reveals that this coincides with an amplification of the westward propagating wavenumber-1 quasi-six day wave (Q6DW) in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere (MLT). The WACCM-X simulated Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instability growth rate, considered as a proxy of EPB occurrence, is found to exhibit a ~6-day periodicity that is coincident with the enhanced Q6DW in the MLT. Additional WACCM-X simulations performed with fixed solar and geomagnetic activity demonstrate that the ~6-day periodicity in the R-T instability growth rate is related to the forcing from the lower atmosphere. The simulations suggest that the Q6DW influences the day-to-day formation of EPBs through interaction with the migrating semidiurnal tide. This leads to periodic oscillations in the zonal winds, resulting in periodic variability in the strength of the prereversal enhancement, which influences the R-T instability growth rate and EPBs. The results demonstrate that atmospheric planetary waves, and their interaction with atmospheric tides, can have a significant impact on the day-to-day variability of EPBs.        

This work conducts a statistical study of the subauroral polarization stream (SAPS) feature in the North American sector using Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar measurements from 1979 to 2019, which provides a comprehensive SAPS climatology using a significantly larger database of radar observations than was used in seminal earlier works. Key features of SAPS and associated Ne/Ti/Te are investigated using a superposed epoch analysis method. The characteristics of these parameters are investigated with respect to magnetic local time, season, geomagnetic activity, solar activity, and interplanetary magnetic field orientation, respectively. The main results are as follows: (1) Conditions for SAPS are more favorable for dusk than near midnight, for winter compared to summer, for active geomagnetic periods compared to quiet time, for solar minimum compared to solar maximum, and for IMF conditions with negative By and negative Bz. (2) SAPS is usually associated with a midlatitude trough of 15–20\% depletion in the background density. The SAPS-related trough is more pronounced in the postmidnight sector and near the equinoxes. (3) Subauroral ion and electron temperatures exhibit a 3–8\% (50–120 K) enhancement in SAPS regions, which tend to have higher percentage enhancement during geomagnetically active periods and at midnight. Ion temperature enhancements are more favored during low solar activity periods, while the electron temperature enhancement remains almost constant as a function of the solar cycle. (4) The electron thermal content, Te \times Ne, in the SAPS associated region is strongly dependent on 1/Ne, with Te exhibiting a negative correlation with respect to $Ne$.

We report new findings of total electron content (TEC) perturbations in the southern hemisphere at conjugate locations to the northern eclipse on 21 August 2017. We identified a persistent conjugate TEC depletion by 10-15\% during eclipse time, elongating along magnetic latitudes with $\sim$5$^\circ$ latitudinal width, moving equatorward, and becoming most pronounced at lower magnetic latitudes ($<$20$^\circ$S) when the ionosphere in the northern low latitudes were masked. This depletion was coincident with a weakening of the southern crest of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA), while the northern EIA crest stayed almost undisturbed or was slightly enhanced. We suggest these conjugate perturbations were associated with dramatic eclipse initiated plasma pressure reductions in the flux tubes, with a large portion of shorter tubes located at low latitudes underneath the Moon’s shadow. These small L-shell tubes transversed the F region ionosphere at low and equatorial latitudes. The plasma pressure gradient was markedly skewed northward in the flux tubes at low and equatorial latitudes, as was the neutral pressure. These effects caused a general northward motion tendency for plasma within the flux tubes, and inhibited normal southward diffusion of equatorial fountain plasma into the southern EIA region.