3‐D Tomographic Reconstruction of SED Plume During 17 March 2013 Storm

Abstract

The three-dimensional computerized ionospheric tomography (3DCIT) technique is used to reconstruct the spatial distribution of storm-enhanced density (SED) based on the global positioning system total electron content measurements over the North American area during the 17 March 2013 storm. The reconstruction results are carefully validated with observations from three ionosonde stations, the constellation observing system for meteorology, ionosphere, and climate (COSMIC) radio occultations, and the Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar. The electron density profiles from the 3DCIT reconstruction show a good agreement with the ionosonde and COSMIC electron density profiles. The 3DCIT-derived electron density difference between the storm day of 17 March and the quiet day of 16 March also captures the similar SED plume signature that was observed by the Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar. The 3DCIT reconstruction allows us for the first time to unveil the 3-D configuration of the SED plume and its spatiotemporal evolution. It was found that the SED plume first appeared around 400 km and then expanded downward to~300 km as well as upward to~500 km over the course of a 3-hr period from 19 to 22 UT on 17 March. Our study also showed that the density enhancement within the SED plume occurred mostly above the storm time F layer peak height.

Three‐Dimensional Reconstruction of Tongue of Ionization During the 11 October 2010 Geomagnetic Storm and Evolution Analysis With TIEGCM

“…Zhai et al. (2020) similarly noted that electron density was greatly increased above hmF2 but substantially reduced at lower altitudes, which proves our findings and discussions. The observations of ionosonde, COSMIC, and TIEGCM also showed the uplift of ionospheric electrons.…”

“…In Section 2, we describe the geomagnetic conditions, the measured data, and 3DCIT algorithm. Compared with previous 3DCIT algorithms (Kong et al, 2016(Kong et al, , 2019(Kong et al, , 2021Zhai et al, 2020), we proposed a new improved function-based 3DCIT algorithm, which added occultation data as vertical constraints. In Section 3, we present a validation of the reconstruction results that used observations from the constellation observing system for meteorology, ionosphere, and climate (COSMIC) satellites and ionosondes.…”

“…Zhai et al. (2020) unveiled the 3D configuration of the SED plume and its spatiotemporal evolution using the 3DCIT reconstruction. They found that the SED plume first appeared at approximately 400 km and expanded downward to ∼300 km and upward to ∼500 km over the course of a 3‐hr period.…”

“…Kong et al (2019) monitored two vertical electron motions by using the 3DCIT images and discussed the physical mechanisms of the vertical motion during a magnetic storm. Zhai et al (2020) unveiled the 3D configuration of the SED plume and its spatiotemporal evolution using the 3DCIT reconstruction. They found that the SED plume first appeared at approximately 400 km and expanded downward to ∼300 km and upward to ∼500 km over the course of a 3-hr period.…”

3‐D Regional Ionosphere Imaging and SED Reconstruction With a New TEC‐Based Ionospheric Data Assimilation System (TIDAS)

“…In the current study, we use our TIDAS data assimilation system to derive 3-D high-resolution regional Ne to better understand the fine-scale structures and dynamic 3-D evolution of storm-enhanced density (SED) structures, in particular, the vertical electron density variation is very insightful information to understand the SED formation physics and evolution history. In addition, Zhai et al (2020) also implemented an interesting computerized tomography reconstruction of the SED plume during this event using TEC data from 540+ GNSS receivers in a dedicated smaller area. In comparison, our work uses comprehensive ground-based and space-borne datasets, especially large amount of measurements from 2,000+ GNSS receivers and unique altitude-resolved Millstone Hill ISR measurements, for an in-depth investigation of multi-scale ionospheric disturbances over the continental US and adjacent areas utilizing a new hybrid Ensemble-Variation scheme for optimal state estimation.…”