The Influence of Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances on Ionospheric Irregularities

ROSES ID: NNH20ZDA001N      Selection Year: 2020      

Program Element: Focused Science Topic

Principal Investigator: Shun-Rong Zhang

Affiliation(s): Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Project Member(s):
Erickson, Philip J. Co-I Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Summary:

This project will study traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) and their connection to ionospheric irregularities. Ionospheric irregularities are small-scale plasma density structures that exist nearly universally in the Earth's upper atmosphere and which exhibit diverse characteristics. They are believed to be initiated through plasma nonlinear instability processes. Frontier community topics of relevance include how, where, when, and exactly which instabilities are in action for a given condition. Furthermore, TIDs are, very much like irregularities, a ubiquitous and permanent feature of ionospheric variability. Depending on spatial scale and propagation properties, TIDs are excited by forcing from high latitudes and from below. A joint TID and irregularity relationship has been reported in the literature, but there still exists a lack of comprehensive knowledge to establish a connection between conditions for TID excitation, TID propagation, and irregularity onset. We will address some of these fundamental irregularity questions from a TID perspective:,

Q1.1. What is the global climatology and variability of the medium-scale TID (MSTID) activity during quiet times?

Q1.2. What climatological features are common to global MSTIDs and specific irregularities? Can this information be used to gauge irregularity behavior through global TID monitoring?

Q2. What physical mechanisms drive storm-time MSTID excitation at subauroral and mid- latitudes? Do these MSTIDs and associated instabilities trigger plasma irregularities at lower latitudes?

Q3. What are the characteristics of bubble-like ionospheric super-depletion structures observed at mid- and low latitudes during storms? Are they locally generated irregularities under MSTID influences, part of the poleward extension of an equatorial bubble, or an inherent plasmasphere structure?

This project will analyze satellite in situ and ground-based ionospheric remote sensing data. It involves significant statistical work for MSTID global climatology and irregularity characteristics (Q1) as well as case studies (Q2-Q3) utilizing multi-datasets. These include (1) extensive GNSS TEC with global coverage, allowing TID calculation on a daily basis and statistics on a monthly basis for a solar cycle; (2) GOLD observations of nighttime ionospheric bubbles/irregularities with direct comparison to GNSS data; (3) ionosonde data at midlatitude stations (e.g., Austin, TX and Eglin AFB, FL), used to examine Spread-F occurrence at mid-latitudes during storm and quiet times; and (4) in-situ LEO Swarm and DMSP plasma irregularity observations.

Our project addresses the irregularity onset mechanisms associated with MSTIDs during both quiet and storm times, which are directly relevant to the FST goals in the understanding of "the conditions that lead to the onset and evolution of ionospheric irregularities", in particular, to "identify the mechanisms and structures that are responsible for ionospheric irregularities". We will

1- Produce an improved understanding of irregularity onset and global distribution from a MSTID perspective for both quiet and storm conditions. By elaborating MSTID roles, we will contribute to the overall FST science goal on the irregularity phenomenology and mechanisms.

2- Provide unique and comprehensive global MSTID information to the team from GNSS TEC observations. The baseline data used to calculate MSTIDs are available through the MIT Madrigal database. In addition to daily MSTID maps, we will also provide monthly statistics of MSTID global distribution.

3- Provide MSTID-irregularity analysis results and subsequent questions to modeling members of the team and will assist with theoretical understanding and model-data comparison activities.

This project is within Decadal Survey Key Science Goal 2 and LWS Strategic Science Areas SSA-IV (Variability of the Geomagnetic Environment) and SSA-VI (Localized Ionospheric Irregularities).

Publications:

Performance Year	Reference	Investigation Type	Actions
2	Aa, E., Forsythe, V. V., Zhang, S.-R., Wang, W. & Coster... Aa, E., Zhang, S.-R., Erickson, P. J., Wang, W., Qian, L., C... Aa, E., Zhang, S.-R., Liu, G., Eastes, R. W., Wang, W., Kara... Aa, E., Zhang, S.-R., Wang, W., Erickson, P. J. & Coster... Aa, E., Zhang, S.-R., Coster, A. J., Erickson, P. J. & R... Aa, E., Zhang, S.-R., Erickson, P. J., Wang, W. & Coster... Zhang, S.-R., Nishimura, Y., Vierinen, J., Lyons, L. R., Kni...	Other Investigations Other Investigations Other Investigations Other Investigations Other Investigations Other Investigations Other Investigations
2	Zhang, S.-R., Cnossen, I., Lastovicka, J., Elias, A. G., Yue...	Other Investigations

Presentations:

Performance Year	Reference	Actions
2	Zhang, S-R, Erickson, P, Coster, J, Goncharenko, L, Volz, R,...
2	Zhang, S-R, Aa, E, Zhang, Y, Wang, W, Qian, L, and Goncharen...
1	Joel Dahlin, Spiro Antiochos, Jiong Qiu, C. R. DeVore, “Te... Xiaocan Li, “Modeling Large-scale Electron Acceleration in... (Invited) Joel Dahlin, Spiro Antiochos, Jiong Qiu, C. Richar... Blinstrubas, G., "Automated System for High Rate GNSS D... Lamarche, L., “Spectra of Plasma Irregularities around Pol... Lamarche, L., “ISR theory and practice” Guest lecture in... Westerlund, C., Camera and inversion models for auroral scie... Vaggu, P., “Modeling the Effects of Density Structures pro... Zettergren, M., “Stability and structuring of mid-latitude... Gang Li (CoI), et al.: Electron Acceleration at a Shock With... "The Importance of Turbulence and Reconnection in the F... Lynch, B. J., Heliospheric Modeling of Large-scale Interplan... Lynch, B. J., Recent Progress in Numerical Modeling of Erupt... Lynch, B. J., Heliospheric Modeling of Large-scale Interplan... Lynch, B. J., Recent Progress in Numerical Modeling of Erupt... Virtual Presentation at SWEAP Science Telecon Meeting (02/20... Virtual Presentation at the University of Arizona Lunar and ... Jull A.J.T., Panyushkina I., Molnár M., Tamas Varga T., Liv... Miyake F., Hakozaki M., Kimura K., Tokanai F., Nakamura, K.,... Panyushkina I., Malyutina T., Jull AJT., Molnar M., Cherkins... Jull, A. J. T., Panyushkina I., Molnar M., Varga T., Livina ... Zhang, S-R, TIDs Associated With the Tonga Eruption: Some Un... AGU 2021: Ground magnetic field perturbation forecasting bas... COSPAR 2021: Modeling and forecasting ground geomagnetic per... Kim, H., Noh, S., Kuzichev, I., Ozturk, D., Xu, Z., Weygand,... Smith, A., Ozturk, D. S., Delamere, P., Lu, G., Kim, H. (202... (INVITED)Maruyama, N., et al (Dec, 2021), “ What can the c... Aikio, A., N. Ellahouny, G. P. Geethakumari, L. Cai, H. Vanh... Breneman, A. W., Using multipoint observations to quantify t... Adhikari, L., Zank, G. P., Zhao, L.-L., Telloni, D., Solar W... Adhikari, L., Zank, G. P., Wang, B., Zhao, L.-L., Telloni, D... Adhikari, L., Zank, G. P., Zhao, L.-L., Wang, B., Tang, B., ... Chen, Y., Small-scale Magnetic Flux Ropes via In Situ Spacec... Chen, Y., PyGS: Analysis tools for small-scale magnetic flux... le Roux, A Tempered Fractional Focused and Parker Transport ... Zhao, L.-L., Effects of Finite Frequency on Turbulence Spect... Xiaocan Li, “Exploring Particle Acceleration and Transport... Xiaocan Li, “Turbulence Properties in 3D Magnetic Reconnec... Xiaocan Li, “Modeling Particle Acceleration and Transport ... Xiaocan Li et al., “Modeling Electron Acceleration and Tra... J. T. Dahlin et al., “Decoding Three-Dimensional Reconnect... Mason, G. M., I. Roth, N. V. Nitta, R. Bučík, D. Lario, G.... GEM 2023: Global Geomagnetic Perturbation Forecasting Using ... LMAG 2023: Using Deep Learning for a Multiscale 'Sun-to...
2	Zhang, S-R, Erickson, P, Coster, A, Aa, E, Rideout, R, Gonch...
2	Zhang, S-R, Erickson, P, Coster, A, and Aa, E, Post-sunrise ...
2	Zhang, S-R, Erickson, P, and Aa, E, Ionospheric dynamical re...
2	Aa, E, Zhang, S-R, Zou, S, Wang, W, Erickson, P, Wang Z, and...
2	Zhang, S-R, Nishimura, T, Vierinen, J, Lyons, L, Knipp, D, E...
2	Zhang, S.-R., Aa, E., Vierinen, J., Erickson, P., Goncharenk...
2	Zhang, S.-R., Wang, W., Aa, E., Erickson, P., Qian, L., and ...
2	Aa, E., Zhang, S.-R., Erickson, P., Coster, A., and Gonchare...
2	Aa, E., Zhang, S.-R. et al., Local, Regional, and Global Ion...
2	Aa, E., Zhang, S.-R. et al., A new Bubble Index and multi-da...
2	Aa, E., Zhang, S.-R. et al., Multi-instrument analysis of th...
2	Aa, E., Zhang, S.-R. et al., Exploring multi-scale ionospher...

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