HR: 0800h
AN: SA51B-0254    [Abstracts]
TI: Extending the IRI Topside Electron Density Profiles to Several Re using IMAGE/RPI Measurements
AU: Nsumei, P
EM: Patrick_Nsumei@student.uml.edu
AF: University of Massachusetts Lowell, 600 Suffolk Street, Lowell, MA 01854 United States
AU: * Reinisch, B W
EM: bodo_reinisch@uml.edu
AF: University of Massachusetts Lowell, 600 Suffolk Street, Lowell, MA 01854 United States
AU: Huang, X
EM: .
AF: University of Massachusetts Lowell, 600 Suffolk Street, Lowell, MA 01854 United States
AU: Song, P
EM: .
AF: University of Massachusetts Lowell, 600 Suffolk Street, Lowell, MA 01854 United States
AU: Tu, J
EM: .
AF: University of Massachusetts Lowell, 600 Suffolk Street, Lowell, MA 01854 United States
AB: The radio plasma imager (RPI) onboard the IMAGE spacecraft measures electron density distributions along the magnetic field; these density profiles can be converted to the density distribution as a function of height. For many individual events, the vertical profiles from the spacecraft down to about 2000 km were derived in the polar cap. These profiles were extrapolated downward to join smoothly with the IRI profile at a few hundred km above the F2 layer peak. We use Chapman functions [Reinisch and Huang, 2004], simple exponential functions, and a power law [Nsumei et al., 2003] to test what best describes the vertical profiles from the height of the F2 peak to ~4 Re. The resulting profiles are compared with the topside electron densities computed with the international reference ionosphere (IRI) model. The preliminary comparisons show considerable differences between the RPI driven profiles and the topside IRI model. Although only individual RPI profiles were used, the results confirm that the IRI topside model at high latitudes may not be realistic above ~ 600 km. Our results demonstrate the potential of using the RPI measurements, combined with the IRI model, to construct an empirical electron model that covers the altitude range from the ionosphere to several Re in the polar cap. A similar method can then be developed for lower latitudes, i.e., the plasmasphere.
DE: 2447 Modeling and forecasting
DE: 2475 Polar cap ionosphere
DE: 2481 Topside ionosphere
DE: 2768 Plasmasphere
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting