Tandem Observations of Nighttime Mid‐Latitude Topside Ionospheric Perturbations

Abstract

TID is generally classified into large-scale TID (LSTID) and medium-scale TID (MSTID) (Hernández et al., 2011). The LSTIDs have a period of >1 hr, move faster than 400 m/s, and have a horizontal wavelength of >1,000 km (Hunsucker, 1982). The main driver of LSTID is believed to be Joule heating, which results from

Climatology of Martian Ionospheric Disturbances Deduced From MAVEN Data in 2014–2023

“…(2022) while our method based on high‐pass filtering along the orbit would not count it as disturbance. In Section 2.2, we defined ionospheric disturbance strength as the relative magnitude of spatial inhomogeneity, as has been frequently adopted by studies on terrestrial ionospheric disturbances (e.g., Huang et al., 2014; Song et al., 2023). Considering that different approaches of different papers may lead to slight discrepancies, we conclude that our results are in general agreement with existing literature while complementing them.…”

“…It becomes a “relative” $$\left[{{\mathrm{O}}_{2}}^{+}\right]$$ residual when normalized by the background $$\left[{{\mathrm{O}}_{2}}^{+}\right]$$ profile (red in Figure 1a). The unsigned magnitude of the (inherently bipolar) “relative” $$\left[{{\mathrm{O}}_{2}}^{+}\right]$$ residuals, the result of which is shown in Figure 1b, is considered to represent “ionospheric disturbance strength” at Mars, as has been commonly accepted in terrestrial ionospheric studies (e.g., Huang et al., 2014; Song et al., 2023) and in Gurnett et al. (2010, Section 5) for Mars.…”

“…profile (red in Figure 1a). The unsigned magnitude of the (inherently bipolar) "relative" 𝐴𝐴 [ O2 + ] residuals, the result of which is shown in Figure 1b, is considered to represent "ionospheric disturbance strength" at Mars, as has been commonly accepted in terrestrial ionospheric studies (e.g., Huang et al, 2014;Song et al, 2023) and in Gurnett et al (2010, Section 5) for Mars. To avoid possible effects from outliers, all the data points are removed if the magnitudes of "relative" 𝐴𝐴 [ O2 + ] residuals are larger than 10.…”