HR: 16:45h
AN: SA14A-04    [Abstracts]
TI: Nighttime Measurements of the Ionosphere Made by Ultraviolet Limb Imaging
AU: * Coker, C
EM: clayton.coker@nrl.navy.mil
AF: Praxis Inc., Naval Research Laboratory, Code 7607, 4555 Overlook Av SW, Washington, Dc 20375-5352 United States
AU: Dymond, K F
EM: kenneth.dymonf@nrl.navy.mil
AF: E. O. Hulburt Center for Space Research, Naval Research Laboratory, Code 7607, 4555 Overlook Av SW, Washington, DC 20375-5352 United States
AU: Thonnard, S E
EM: stefan.thonnard@nrl.navy.mil
AF: E. O. Hulburt Center for Space Research, Naval Research Laboratory, Code 7607, 4555 Overlook Av SW, Washington, DC 20375-5352 United States
AB: We present electron density profiles derived by inversion of ultraviolet limb radiances and comparisons of this data with other ionospheric sensor and models. The O+ density profile, which is approximately equal to the electron density profile in the F-region ionosphere, was determined by inverting the limb radiance profile of O I 1356 � emission of atomic oxygen; the 1356-� emission is produced purely by radiative recombination of O+ ions and electrons at night and has been shown to be a viable means of globally sensing the ionospheric state. Dymond et al. [Geophys. Res. Lett., Vol. 28, No. 5, 927-930, 2001] showed a preliminary validation of this technique covering a single day of observations. We have performed a more extended validation of the retrieved peak electron density, peak height, total electron content, and topside scale height by comparisons with nearly coincident ionosonde and TOPEX measurements. In particular, we investigate the effects of low latitude ionospheric gradients on the comparisons.
DE: 2415 Equatorial ionosphere
DE: 2437 Ionospheric dynamics
DE: 2443 Midlatitude ionosphere
DE: 2447 Modeling and forecasting
DE: 2494 Instruments and techniques
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005