HR: 11:35h
AN: SA12A-06    [Abstracts]
TI: GUVI Equatorial Plasma Bubble Imaging and Climatology, 2002-2007
AU: * Comberiate, J M
EM: Joseph.Comberiate@jhuapl.edu
AF: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723, United States
AU: Paxton, L J
EM: Larry.Paxton@jhuapl.edu
AF: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, 11100 Johns Hopkins Road, Laurel, MD 20723, United States
AB: Since its launch on-board the Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED) satellite in December 2001, the Global Ultraviolet Imager (GUVI) has over five years of observations of the nightside equatorial ionosphere. GUVI is capable of detecting and imaging plasma bubbles within the northern and southern equatorial arcs. An automated algorithm was developed to locate the peaks of the equatorial arcs and detect the presence of equatorial plasma bubbles. This algorithm was integrated with a tomographic imaging model and a statistical inversion technique to reconstruct electron density and produce multi- dimensional images of plasma depletion structures. A database of plasma bubble reconstructions is under development, with results from over five years of GUVI data. Climatological statistics of plasma bubble occurrence from this database are presented, including the effects of longitudinal, seasonal, geomagnetic, and solar cycle variations on plasma bubble occurrence. The relationship between the latitudinal separation and peak electron density values of the equatorial arcs and plasma bubble occurrence is also discussed.
DE: 2415 Equatorial ionosphere
DE: 2439 Ionospheric irregularities
DE: 2494 Instruments and techniques
DE: 6982 Tomography and imaging (7270, 8180)
DE: 7900 SPACE WEATHER
SC: SPA-Aeronomy [SA]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting