[1] We present a study of the climatology of thermospheric neutral wind (TNW) meridional and zonal components measured with the 630.0 nm nightglow Fabry-Perot interferometer at the Arecibo Observatory from 1980 to 2010. We show and discuss the solar and geomagnetic dependencies as well as the long-term trend of the TNW components and their variation over time and season. A main result of this study was the detection of a substantial seasonal and local time dependence of the response of the TNW to solar and geomagnetic activity. In addition, we found that there is a long-term trend in the thermospheric neutral wind, which can be of a larger magnitude than the variation found in the seasonal, solar cycle, and geomagnetic activity influences. A major signature of this trend over the last 30 years was an increase in the meridional northward component up to 1.4 m s À1 yr À1 before midnight local time during the summer.

Abstract.A statistical study of the zonal drift velocities of the ionospheric plasma bubbles using experimental airglow data acquired at the low-latitude station Cachoeira Paulista (Geogr. 22.5 • S, 45 • W, dip angle 28 • S) during the period of October to March, between 1980 and 1994, is presented here. This study is based on 109 nights of zonal plasma bubble velocity estimations as determined from bubbles signatures on the OI 630 nm scanning photometer airglow data. The zonal velocity magnitudes of the plasma bubbles are investigated with respect to solar activity and local time. It is verified that these velocities tend to increase with the solar EUV flux, using the solar 10.7-cm radio flux as a proxy (F10.7). These velocities are seen to be larger during the solar maximum activity period than in the solar minimum period. As to the local time variation, they are seen to peak before midnight, in the 20:30-22:30 LT time frame, depending on the season. The all-data plot based on the 109 nights of airglow experiments shows that the plasma bubble mean zonal drift velocities tend to decrease with local time, but they peak at 22:25 LT, where the velocity magnitude reaches 127.4 ms −1 . The zonal drift variations with local time and solar flux are shown in Figs. 1 and 2, respectively.

[1] This work presents the results of a local empirical model that describes the behavior of the ionospheric F 2 region peak. The model was developed using nearly 25 years of incoherent scatter radar (ISR) measurements made at the Arecibo Observatory (AO) between 1985 and 2009. The model describes the variability of the F 2 peak frequency ( f o F 2 ) and F 2 peak height (h m F 2 ) as a function of local time, season, and solar activity for quiet-to-moderate geomagnetic activity conditions (Kp < 4+). Our results show that the solar activity control of h m F 2 and f o F 2 over Arecibo can be better described by a new proxy of the solar flux (F 107P ), which is presented here. The variation of h m F 2 parameter with F 107P is virtually linear, and only a small saturation of the f o F 2 parameter is observed at the highest levels of solar flux. The winter anomaly and asymmetries in the variation of the modeled parameters between equinoxes were detected during the analyses and have been taken into account by the AO model. Comparisons of ISR data with international reference ionosphere (IRI) model predictions indicate that both CCIR and URSI modes overestimate f o F 2 during the daytime and underestimate it at night. As expected, this underestimation is not observed in the AO model. Our analyses also show that the h m F 2 parameter predicted by the IRI modes shows a saturation point, which causes h m F 2 to be underestimated at high solar activity. The underestimation increases with higher levels of solar activity. Finally, we also found that IRI predictions of the seasonal variability of f o F 2 and h m F 2 over Arecibo can be improved by using a small correction that varies with solar activity and local time.Citation: Brum, C. G. M., F. S. Rodrigues, P. T. dos Santos, A. C. Matta, N. Aponte, S. A. Gonzalez, and E. Robles (2011), A modeling study of f o F 2 and h m F 2 parameters measured by the Arecibo incoherent scatter radar and comparison with IRI model predictions for solar cycles 21, 22, and 23,

We employ in this work the first O(1D) 630.0‐nm airglow data set registered at the Remote Optical Facility (ROF) in Culebra, Puerto Rico, during the descending phase of the solar cycle #24. From 4 November 2015 to 26 September 2019, observations were carried out during 633 nights at ROF using a small all‐sky imager, while MSTID events were identified in 225 of 499 nights classified as clear. A quantitative analysis of these MSTIDs and their dependency by geophysical parameters (solar and geomagnetic activities) are the main focus of this study. We introduce an original statistical methodology that examines the unique features of the data set and minimizes the cross contamination of individual modulators onto one another, avoiding bias in the results. Our findings include a primary peak of MSTIDs occurrence in the December solstice and a secondary peak in the June solstice. We observed a remarkable correlation in the occurrence rate of the MSTIDs with the geomagnetic activity. A notable modulation of the MSTIDs occurrence rate with the solar activity is also found, which includes periods of correlation and anticorrelation depending on the season. This modulation has an annual component that is ~33% and ~83% stronger than the semiannual and terannual components, respectively. We discuss these findings based on a previous study of the thermospheric neutral winds derived from 30 years of Fabry‐Perot interferometer observations at Arecibo Observatory. Our results, which are valid for low to moderate solar activity, point out circumstances that might explain differences in previous climatological studies of nighttime MSTIDs.

We present in this work a method for estimation of equatorial plasma bubble (EPB) mean zonal drift velocities using keograms generated from images of the OI 6300.0 nm nightglow emission collected from an equatorial station–Cariri (7.4° S, 36.5° W), and a mid-latitude station–Cachoeira Paulista (22.7° S, 45° W), both in the Brazilian sector. The mean zonal drift velocities were estimated for 239 events recorded from 2000 to 2003 in Cariri, and for 56 events recorded over Cachoeira Paulista from 1998 to 2000. It was found that EPB zonal drift velocities are smaller (≈60 ms−1) for events occurring later in the night compared to those occurring earlier (≈150 ms−1). The decreasing rate of the zonal drift velocity is ≈10 ms−1/h. We have also found that, in general, bubble events appearing first in the west-most region of the keograms are faster than those appearing first in the east-most region. Larger zonal drift velocities occur from 19 to 23 LT in a longitude range from −37° to −33°, which shows that the keogram method can be used to describe vertical gradients in the thermospheric wind, assuming that the EPBs drift eastward with the zonal wind. The method of velocity estimation using keograms compares favorably against the mosaic method developed by Arruda, D.C.S, 2005, but the standard deviation of the residuals for the zonal drift velocities from the two methods is not small (≈15 ms−1).