We present an analysis of 23 years of thermal plasma measurements in the topside ionosphere from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft. The H+/O+ ratio and density vary dramatically with the solar cycle; cross‐correlation coefficients between E10.7 and the daily averaged densities are greater than 0.85. The ionospheric parameters also vary dramatically with season, particularly at latitudes away from the equator where the solar zenith angle varies greatly with season. There are also 27 day solar rotation periodicities in the density, associated with periodicities in the directly measured solar EUV flux. Empirical orthogonal function analysis captures over 95% of the variation in the density in the first two principal components. The first principal component (PC1) is clearly associated with the solar EUV while the second principal component (PC2) is clearly associated with the solar zenith angle variation. The magnitude of the variation of the response of the topside ionosphere to solar EUV variability is shown to be closely related to the ionospheric composition. This is interpreted as the result of the effect of composition on the scale height in the topside ionosphere and the “pivot effect” in which the variation in density near the F2 peak is amplified by a factor of e at an altitude a scale height above the F2 peak. When the topside ionosphere is H+ dominated during solar minimum, DMSP may be much less than a scale height above the F2 peak while during solar maximum, when it is O+ dominated, DMSP may be several scale heights above the F2 peak.
Nonmigrating tides are a major coupling mechanism between the different regions of the atmosphere and ionosphere. The wave number 4 (WN4) pattern in the ionosphere has been recognized as originating primarily with the diurnal eastward propagating wave‐3 nonmigrating tide (DE3) in the troposphere, and significant effort has been devoted in recent years to understanding how tidal effects manifest in various physical parameters across a very wide range of altitudes. While DE3 and WN4 signatures have been much studied in the mesosphere‐lower thermosphere region, relatively little is known about how WN4 impacts the ionosphere above the F peak. We present an analysis of WN4 in the topside ionosphere as measured by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) spacecraft, using monthly averages of total ion densities and composition binned by latitude and longitude. We found that WN4 is most strongly present during September equinox. In May–August, ion densities near 180–270 geographic longitude (GLON) are enhanced and the WN4 pattern moves 5–10° north; in November–February, ion densities are reduced in this region and WN4 moves 5–10° south. No solar cycle effects were found in the magnitude of dN/N. The longitude position of the peaks (phase) was observed to vary by about 10° with F10.7, moving eastward with increasing F10.7. The latitude variation was less than 5° and did not show a trend with F10.7. The WN4 pattern changes rapidly near dawn but is very constant throughout the afternoon and evening in terms of dN/N and drifts eastward at about 2° GLON per hour magnetic local time.
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