New understanding of storm-time traveling ionospheric disturbances

When:
March 5, 2020 @ 10:30 am – 11:30 am America/New York Timezone
2020-03-05T10:30:00-05:00
2020-03-05T11:30:00-05:00
Where:
Boston College - 202 Kenny Cottle - ISR conference room
885 Centre St.
Newton MA 02459.

Social Implications and Technology Society, Nuclear and Plasma Science Society (NPS), IEEE HKN – Kappa Sigma Chapter and co-sponsoring Geo-science and Remote Sensing Society

Storm-time Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (TIDs) provide pathway for momentum and energy dispersion from the solar wind-magnetosphere system to various components of the global ionosphere and thermosphere. Large scale TIDs (LSTIDs) are known to be initiated generally in the auroral zone where significant heating is injected, with subsequent propagation away from the source: equatorward into lower latitudes and poleward into high latitudes. This general picture lacks important components in some of the very dynamic regions: at subauroral latitudes where LSTIDs encounter dramatic electromagnetic and ion-neutral coupling forcing provided by the subauroral polarization stream (SAPS); in the polar region where both dayside and nightside auroral heating processes associated with storms and substorms could be significant TID sources. We will present a GNSS-based TID observational study to provide evidence of (1) concurrent medium-scale TIDs (MSTIDs) and LSTIDs at subauroral and mid- latitudes during the SAPS presence, and (2) the unexpected transpolar day-to-night propagation of TIDs, suggesting significant dayside auroral impact. We will discuss potential physical processes associated with these observations. These new results help form a global picture of the storm TID propagation.

Speaker: Dr. Shun-rong Zhang is a Space Scientist at the MIT Haystack Observatory. His research encompasses a wide range of ionospheric and thermospheric topics, and recently has concentrated on the climatology of the upper atmosphere, long term variations, and space weather.

Meeting Location: ISR conference room, 202 Kenny Cottle, Boston College, 885 Centre St., Newton MA 02459.