Large-scale irregularities of the winter polar topside ionosphere according to data from Swarm satellites

Abstract

An analysis of the electron density measurements (Ne) along the flyby trajectories over the high-latitude region of the Northern Hemisphere under winter conditions in 2014 and 2016 has shown that the main large-scale structure observed by Swarm satellites is the tongue of ionization (TOI). At the maximum of the solar cycle (F_10.7 = 160), the average value of Ne in the TOI region at an altitude of 500 km was 8 × 10⁴ cm^–3. Two years later, at F_10.7 = 100, Ne ~ 5 × 10⁴ cm^–3 and Ne ~2.5 × 10⁴ cm^–3 were observed at altitudes of 470 and 530 km, respectively. During the dominance of the azimuthal component of the interplanetary magnetic field, the TOI has been observed mainly on the dawn or dusk side depending on the sign of B_y. Simultaneous observations of the convective plasma drift velocity in the polar cap show the transpolar flow drift to the dawn (B_y < 0) or dusk side (B_y < 0). Observations and numerical simulation of the Ne distribution have confirmed the significant role of the electric field of the magnetospheric convection in the generation of large-scale irregularities in the polar ionosphere.