On using a double-thin-shell approach and TEC perturbation component to sound night-time mid-latitude E–F coupling

Abstract

Observations and theoretical analysis on the night-time mid-latitude ionospheric irregularities support the postulation of frequently coupled E and F regions. In this paper, we attempt at asserting this notion while using total electron content (TEC) measurements. The TECs are from a dense GNSS receiver network over Japan with more than 1200 stations and a mean distance of ~ 25 km between receivers; thus, ideal for analyzing small-scale perturbations in ionospheric electron density. We take an ansatz that mid-latitude night-time plasma instabilities concentrate at E and F layers. Then the integrated three-dimensional density perturbations are parameterized with a double-thin-shell model. At each shell, perturbation components are assumed identical at any point within a given grid block. Two days with events of night-time medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs), but with different amplitudes, were investigated. Results show that the newly developed technique can infer several horizontal characteristics on E–F coupled instabilities; the coexistence of northwest–southeast (NW–SE) aligned irregular structures in E and F regions is evident. Both E- and F-region irregularities share similar propagation parameters, a shred of clear evidence of strong coupling.

Graphical Abstract