[1] The current density of the noontime equatorial electrojet (EEJ) as determined from CHAMP data is highly variable between successive passes of the satellite, which are separated by 23°in distance and 93 min in time. An open question is to which extent this variability is caused by temporal or spatial variations in the ionosphere. Another important question is the connection between EEJ and global solar-quiet (S q ) current systems. We try to answer these questions by comparing the EEJ current density estimated from highquality scalar magnetic field measurements of the CHAMP satellite with the magnetic horizontal intensity variations at six equatorial observatory pairs distributed across the globe. Data taken during the period 2000-2002 were used for the present study. We apply corrections for the effect of local time (LT) and S q fields. By estimating the correlation coefficients between the ground and satellite data as a function of distances between measurements, new insights into the spatial structure of the EEJ have been obtained. The high correlation, when CHAMP passes directly over an observatory, decays quickly in eastern and western directions. Typically, within ±15°of longitudinal separation between satellite and observatory, the correlation falls well below the statistical significance level. This observation holds for all longitude sectors. Interestingly, the correlation between CHAMP-inferred EEJ strength and observatory differences breaks down for the observatory pairs, outside of a ±4°latitudinal band. This implies that the EEJ and S q variations are uncorrelated for periods up to 1 hour. Additionally, it was found that monitoring of the EEJ can be performed best if the reference observatory is 4°to 5°apart from the dip equator.Citation: Manoj, C., H. Lühr, S. Maus, and N. Nagarajan (2006), Evidence for short spatial correlation lengths of the noontime equatorial electrojet inferred from a comparison of satellite and ground magnetic data,

Prompt penetration (PP) and ionospheric disturbance dynamo (Ddyn) are two expressions of the disturbed electric field developed during a geomagnetic storm in the Earth's ionosphere. Earlier investigations treated these two processes independently over longitudinal separation beyond 20°. In the present study, we investigate the conjunction of these phenomena on equatorial electrojet at 20° longitude separations using daytime magnetic field data from three equatorial sites viz., Minicoy, Vencode, and Campbell Bay and three low‐latitude sites viz., Alibag, Hyderabad, and Nabagram, located within 20° longitude over Indian region, during three intense storms (Dst <− 150 nT). We propose a statistical method to identify PP signatures from large data set. In addition, we distinguish the signatures of PP and Ddyn during early recovery phase of intense storms and compute pure Ddyn signature in the late recovery phase. It is seen that the effect of PP is similar at the three equatorial sites for each storm. We find that signatures of Ddyn are amplified at Minicoy and Vencode compared to Campbell Bay, and their magnitude decreases toward low‐latitude stations, also reflected in the current vector patterns. Our investigations of intense geomagnetic storms show that PP effect dominates the main phase, followed by a combined effect of PP and Ddyn in the early recovery phase. Eventually the Ddyn signature dominates in the late recovery phase with decreasing amplitudes of Ddyn with increasing time. Such investigations can provide new information about variations in ionospheric parameters.

This paper presents the seasonal and longitudinal variability of the equatorial electrojet (EEJ) based on geomagnetic variation data from two electrojet stations in the northern Indian Ocean at a longitudinal separation of~15°: i.e., at 77°E and at 93°E. One complete year of data is used (i.e., from November 2011 to October 2012) at the two longitudes and compared with the climatological model of the equatorial electrojet (EEJM-2.0). The results of our analysis show that (i) the monthly averaged hourly values of EEJ strength at 77°E and 93°E are overall in agreement with global characteristics of EEJ with significant departures over the year of study, (ii) the monthly average hourly daytime values at Campbell Bay and Vencode show poor correlation (r < 0.7) for 5 out of 10 months, (iii) comparison of observed EEJ strength at respective longitudes and the current densities derived from EEJM-2.0 show overall agreement with significant differences for monthly mean hourly daytime values at respective longitudes, and (iv) day-to-day variability in noontime EEJ amplitudes between the two longitudes is >10 nT, >20 nT for 30% of quiet days, sorted by planetary index (Kp) <1 and <2. This variability is reflected in monthly average values (V) mechanisms for persistent differences in EEJ on day-to-day basis are sought from perturbation of westward ion drifts by neutral winds caused by the upward propagation of gravity waves from troposphere/stratosphere into the mesosphere. These mechanisms have been identified theoretically and experimentally. The four-wave structure of ionospheric current densities obtained by EEJM-2.0 and other contemporary models closely resembles atmospheric tidal signatures and has a common origin. The magnitude and persistence of these differences, at short spatial scales (15°), are significant observation. These effects are reflected in the monthly and seasonal signatures of EEJ and contribute to the contemporary models.

The characteristics of longitudinal variability of equatorial electrojet (EEJ) and counter electrojet (CEJ), presented in this study, are based on concurrent observations from a hitherto unsampled region of the world to examine the (1) degree of correlation between hourly means and monthly averaged hourly means of ground observations with equatorial electrojet climatological model (EEJM-2.0), (2) day-to-day longitudinal variability of EEJ strength between the pairs of sites, and (3) At both longitudes, the overall correlation of monthly mean hourly values (i.e., from 05:00 to 19:00 LT) between the observed EEJ strength and modeled current density from EEJM-2.0 is good (r > 0.8). However, a significant lack of correlation is witnessed on day-to-day peak values (i.e., 12:00 LT) between the observed variations and the model at both sites. Further, a comparison of noontime peaks between the two sites shows a considerable day-to-day variability. A large number of CEJs (43 events) are recorded during the study: at CBY (15 events) and VEN (28 events). Analyses of the CEJ events highlight the variability of CEJ phenomena in terms of amplitude, dates, and time of occurrence over 15°l ongitude separation. The local nature of perturbations causing CEJ is evident; the possible factors are being non-migrating eastward and westward propagating diurnal tides and local meteorological phenomena associated with upper mesospheric temperature, wind, and density variations.

The limited longitudinal extent of equatorial counter electrojet (CEJ) has been inferred by several workers based on the analysis of ground data. However, the scale length of CEJ characteristics at 2 h or less has not been estimated so far. The present study seeks to characterize the longitudinal variability of CEJ phenomena at a longitudinal separation of ~15° by using hourly averaged variations at two equatorial electrojet (EEJ) pairs of stations: Hyderabad and Vencode at 77°E and Port Blair and Campbell Bay at 93°E. The nature of CEJ events is classified by time of occurrence and studied by using 12 months of concurrent data at the two longitudes. From examination of 323 CEJ events at VEN (Vencode) and 239 at CBY (Campbell Bay) over a period of 346 days, the observations are as follows: (i) the occurrence of CEJ is not simultaneous at VEN and CBY for about 40% of events; (ii) the amplitude and occurrence frequency of CEJ events is greater at VEN than at CBY during both Kp < 2 and Kp ≥ 2; and (iii) the influence of westward currents on the EEJ peak was evidenced by early or late peak occurrences comprising about 175 days at VEN and 89 days at CBY. It is established here that considerable variability of CEJ signatures is observed between the two longitudes at 15° separation, revealing the impact of local electrodynamics. These local processes therefore significantly influence the characteristics of EEJ.