Radar Studies of Low Latitude Electrodynamics

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This grant supports studies of the low latitude and equatorial ionosphere and thermosphere. The main objectives are the understanding of the coupling of low latitude electrodynamic drifts of high latitude current systems and low latitude thermospheric neutral winds. These studies rely mostly on equatorial and low latitude incoherent scatter radar and Fabry- Perot observations. Ionospheric and protonospheric studies at the Arecibo Observatory will be expanded, and through extensive collaborative efforts the use of local and global thermospheric, ionospheric and convection models will be greatly extended. The main areas of proposed work are: (1) processes controlling the penetration of high latitude electric fields to low and equatorial latitudes, (2) comparative studies of ionospheric disturbance electric fields using radar observations and results from global convection models, (3) coupling of low latitude and equatorial plasma drifts and neutral winds, (4) day-to-day variability and the effects of the two-day oscillation in the equatorial thermosphere and on the equatorial ionization anomaly, (5) high temporal resolution plasma drift measurements over Arecibo, (6) composition of the low latitude topside ionosphere and protonosphere, and (7) empirical modeling of the ionospheric electric fields at middle and low latitudes.