Global Distributions of Irregular, Sporadic, and Descending Layers in the Lower Ionospheric-Thermospheric Domain

这项研究讨论了风、电场和电离层等离子体层在100-200公里高度区域中所起的作用，重点是确定等离子体层的分布。这一区域通常由“零星”、“中间”、“下降”和/或“顺序”层组成，具有足够高的等离子体含量，足以在E区和F区耦合过程中发挥重要作用，并影响全球范围的电动力学电路。没有这些层的全球模型，也没有经验基线来定义它们的全球分布和它们的昼夜、季节和太阳周期控制。为填补这一空白，将组织和分析国际日规数据库，并采用一整套地面诊断技术，重点是一种新的低成本分析程序。我们将把这些数据与R.Roble博士提供的NCAR/TIGCM的预测进行比较。这将为代码输入条件的唯一性和有效性提供重要的测试；它将使对经向和纬向风切变力、电场和离子组成的贡献作用的自洽调查成为可能。

This investigation addresses the role played by winds, electric fields, and ionospheric plasma layers in the 100-200 km altitude regime focusing on the determination of plasma layer distributions. This region is regularly populated by "sporadic," "intermediate," "descending," and/or "sequential" layers, with sufficiently high plasma content to play an important role in E- and F-region coupling processes and to influence the global-scale electrodynamic circuit. There is no global model of these layers, nor is there an empirical baseline to define their global distributions and their diurnal, seasonal, and solar-cycle controls. This void will be addressed by organizing and analyzing the international SUNDIAL database, and employing the SUNDIAL suite of ground-based diagnostic techniques, with emphasis on a new low cost analysis procedure. We will compare the data with the predictions of the NCAR/TIGCM provided by Dr. R. Roble. This will provide important tests of the uniqueness and validity of the code's input conditions; and it will make possible a self-consistent investigation into the contributing roles of meridional and zonal wind-shear forces, electric fields, and ion composition.