NSWP: High Frequency (HF) Doppler Radar for Low Latitude Studies

在秘鲁Jicamara非相干散射雷达设施安装了一台多普勒高频雷达，目的是解开导致赤道等离子体气泡爆发的过程，进而解开横穿电离层的无线电信号的闪烁，包括全球定位系统信号。研究了F-区峰下方电离层扰动的频谱和传播，并确定了它们与在Jicamara观测到的EPBS的关系。在太阳极小值条件下，确定了中性风逆转前增强离子密度中垂直离子漂移的可变性，并确定了这种可变性与赤道等离子体气泡开始的关系。使用附近法布里-珀罗涉仪的数据，也评估了中性风对EPB发生的调制程度，以及可能超过其他有效触发机制的程度。F区电离层峰值以下的等离子体扰动、垂直离子漂移的可变性、中性风和EPB开始之间的确定的关系最终被用来试图预测EPB的产生以及相关的射电闪烁。

A Doppler High Frequency (HF) radar is placed at the Jicamarca Peru Incoherent Scatter Radar Facility for the purpose of untangling the processes that lead to the onset of equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs), and in turn to scintillations of radio signals traversing the ionosphere, including GPS signals. The spectra and propagation of ionospheric perturbations just below the F-region peak are characterized, and their relationship to EPBs observed at Jicamarca is determined. The variability of vertical ion drift in the enhanced ion density preceding the neutral wind reversal is determined during solar minimum conditions, and the relationship of that variability to equatorial plasma bubble onset is determined. The extent to which neutral winds modulate the occurrence of EPBs, and possibly override otherwise effective triggering mechanisms is also evaluated using data from nearby Fabry-Perot interferometers. The determined relationships between plasma perturbations below the F-region ionospheric peak, variability of the vertical ion drift, the neutral wind, and EPB onset are finally used to in an attempt to predict EPB generation, along with associated radio scintillations.