CEDAR Postdoc: Imaging Studies of Ionospheric Instabilities

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Incoherent scatter radar (ISR) observations of the F-region at Arecibo, Puerto Rico, are used with simultaneous airglow observations of the [OI] 630 nm and 732 nm emissions at Arecibo and at El Leoncito, Argentina to study a variety of F-region irregularity phenomena. The primary purpose is to understand the formation and propagation of mesoscale traveling ionospheric disturbances. Because all-sky imagers at each site have sufficient sky coverage, magnetic conjugacy effects are also characterized. Rayleigh-Taylor instability driven plasma depletions are also witnessed at each site, and this study seeks to determine if these depletions commonly mirror between conjugate locations. In addition to the ISR and airglow diagnostics, both Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) data are used to characterize the ionosphere near the southern Appleton anomaly and near the Arecibo conjugate point. The research is the focus of an Hispanic postdoctoral student, and includes significant international cooperation.