SA009-0002
The Response of the Ionosphere-Thermosphere System from Large-Scale Waves Associated with Geomagnetic Storms as Seen from the Ionospheric Connection Explorer

Wednesday, 9 December 2020
Poster
Andrew Wang, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States, Thomas J Immel, Univ of California, Berkeley, CA, United States, Brian Joseph Harding, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, United States, Colin Charles Triplett, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK, United States, Yen-Jung Joanne Wu, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, United States, Christoph R Englert, Naval Research Lab DC, Space Science Division, Washington, DC, United States, Roderick A Heelis, University Texas Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States and Russell Stoneback, University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, United States
Abstract:
Increases in auroral activity can generate significant disturbances in wind, temperature and composition of the upper atmosphere, with an accompanying set of effects in the ionosphere. One of the first manifestations of these disturbances are large-scale waves that propagate out of the auroral zones and travel around the planet near the local sound speed. The NASA Ionospheric Connection Explorer carries observational capabilities for both the neutral and plasma environments above 100 km, and is sensitive to perturbations propagating to middle and low latitudes from the regions of enhanced Joule heating near the poles. Here we will review the effects of large-scale waves in the atmosphere in the ionosphere observed during the first year of the mission. One of the larger events of 2020 was a moderate geomagnetic storm in April, which was observed in the Northern Hemisphere to drive a traveling wave with a signature disturbance in meridional winds > 100 m/s.
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