Disturbance Neutral Winds Effects on the Ionospheric Strip‐Like Bulge at Lower‐Middle Latitudes

Abstract

An important aspect of the ionospheric behaviors during geomagnetic storms is the occurrence of various kinds of intermediate-scale plasma density structures at different latitudinal sectors. A brief list of those structures includes the tongue of ionization (e.g.,

Localized Plasma Density Peak at Middle Latitudes During the April 2023 Geomagnetic Storm

“…This study observes no significant electron temperature and vertical ion drift signatures at the mid-latitude peak (not shown). Besides, this peak is also clearly unlike the strip-like bulges reported by Wan et al (2021Wan et al ( , 2022 since the bulges reside far away from the mid-latitude peak and exhibit more narrow and sharp peaks. Wan et al noted that the strip-like bulges are dominated by the ion composition of the H + /He + rather than O + , suggesting their plasmaspheric nature.…”

“…Besides, this peak is also clearly unlike the strip‐like bulges reported by Wan et al. (2021, 2022) since the bulges reside far away from the mid‐latitude peak and exhibit more narrow and sharp peaks. Wan et al.…”

“…They thought the combination of prompt penetration and disturbance dynamo electric fields played an essential role in this streaming. By satellite observations, Wan et al (2021Wan et al ( , 2022 captured striplike bulges in the lower-middle latitudes and proposed that equatorward neutral winds shrank the plasma band structure into a strip-like bulge. However, no consensus or established explanation exists for the latitudinal structures around middle latitudes during storm times.…”

“…More complex and variable latitudinal peak structures are observed during storm times (Chartier et al., 2021; Datta‐Barua et al., 2008; Foster & Coster, 2007; Foster & Rideout, 2005; Heelis & Coley, 2007; Horvath & Lovell, 2008; Maruyama, 2006; Maruyama et al., 2013; Tsurutani et al., 2004; Wan et al., 2021, 2022). The mid‐latitude ionosphere responds to geomagnetic storm disturbances in a dramatic and complicated style through various processes, such as neutral wind surges from high latitudes, prompt penetration, and disturbance dynamo electric fields.…”

Intensification and Weakening of Equatorial Plasma Bubble Development Observed by GOLD During Different Phases of a Geomagnetic Storm

“…The response of EPB development to geomagnetic storms has been widely investigated using different techniques including the use of ionosondes (Abdu et al., 2003; Santos et al., 2012; Sripathi et al., 2018), TEC derived from the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) (Cherniak et al., 2019; de Paula et al., 2019; F. Huang et al., 2021; Picanço et al., 2022), low‐earth orbiting (LEO) satellites (Chang et al., 2022; Wan et al., 2022; Zakharenkova et al., 2019), ground‐ and space‐based imagers (Ghodpage et al., 2018; Karan et al., 2023; Wu et al., 2020) and numerical models (Bhattacharyya et al., 2019; Blanc & Richmond, 1980; Carter et al., 2014, 2016). Four important deductions from these studies are (a) The influence of disturbance electric fields on ESF/EPB development is a function of local time.…”