Explanipedia

Variations in Topside Ion Temperature at Different Solar Activity Levels Open

R. A. Heelis, Yun‐Ju Chen · 2025

Continuous operation of the ICON mission during 2021 and 2022 allows a description of the thermal plasma number density, composition and temperature to be obtained at low and middle latitudes near 600 km altitude, during low and moderate s…

Thermosphere UFKW Structures and Ionosphere Coupling as Observed by ICON Open

J. M. Forbes, Xiaoli Zhang, Christoph R. Englert, R. A. Heelis, M. H. Stevens , et al. · 2024

Two ∼2‐week Ultra‐Fast Kelvin Wave (UFKW) events centered on days 158(203) during 2021 are investigated using winds, temperatures, plasma drifts and electron densities (Ne) measured by the Ionospheric CONnections (ICON) mission. Eastward‐p…

Using ICON Satellite Data to Forecast Equatorial Ionospheric Instability Throughout 2022 Open

D. L. Hysell, A. Kirchman, Brian J. Harding, R. A. Heelis, S. England , et al. · 2024

Numerical forecasts of plasma convective instability in the postsunset equatorial ionosphere are made based on data from the Ionospheric Connections Explorer satellite (ICON) following the method outlined in a previous study. Data are sele…

Plasma-Neutral Interactions in the Lower Thermosphere-Ionosphere: The need for in situ measurements to address focused questions Open

T. E. Sarris, Anita Aikio, S. Buchert, Mark A. Clilverd, I. Dandouras , et al. · 2023

Whitepaper #351 in the Decadal Survey for Solar and Space Physics (Heliophysics) 2024-2033. Main topics: basic research. Additional topics: planetary ionospheres / upper atmospheres; space-based missions/projects.

Plasma-neutral interactions in the lower thermosphere-ionosphere: The need for in situ measurements to address focused questions Open

T. E. Sarris, Minna Palmroth, Anita Aikio, S. Buchert, J. H. Clemmons , et al. · 2023

The lower thermosphere-ionosphere (LTI) is a key transition region between Earth’s atmosphere and space. Interactions between ions and neutrals maximize within the LTI and in particular at altitudes from 100 to 200 km, which is the least v…

Daedalus MASE (mission assessment through simulation exercise): A toolset for analysis of in situ missions and for processing global circulation model outputs in the lower thermosphere-ionosphere Open

T. E. Sarris, Stelios Tourgaidis, Panagiotis Pirnaris, Dimitris Baloukidis, Konstantinos Papadakis , et al. · 2023

Daedalus MASE (Mission Assessment through Simulation Exercise) is an open-source package of scientific analysis tools aimed at research in the Lower Thermosphere-Ionosphere (LTI). It was created with the purpose to assess the performance a…

Forecasting Convective Instability in the Equatorial Ionosphere using ICON Open

D. L. Hysell, Aaron Kirchman, Brian J. Harding, R. A. Heelis, S. England · 2023

Atmospheric Lunar Tide in the Low Latitude Thermosphere‐Ionosphere Open

R. S. Lieberman, Brian J. Harding, R. A. Heelis, N. M. Pedatella, J. M. Forbes , et al. · 2022

We present simultaneous, independent measurements of the atmospheric semidiurnal lunar tide in neutral winds and plasma velocities from NASA's Ionospheric Connection Explorer, and in atomic oxygen 135.6 nm airglow measured by the Global‐sc…

Simulated Upper Atmospheric Response to High-resolution Observation-based Geomagnetic Forcing Open

Cheng Sheng, Yue Deng, William A. Bristow, Y. Nishimura, R. A. Heelis , et al. · 2022

SuperDARN potential patterns, ASI precipitation maps, and GITM outputs for the March 26th, 2014 event.

Simulated Upper Atmospheric Response to High-resolution Observation-based Geomagnetic Forcing Open

Cheng Sheng, Yue Deng, William A. Bristow, Y. Nishimura, R. A. Heelis , et al. · 2022

SuperDARN potential patterns, ASI precipitation maps, and GITM outputs for the March 26th, 2014 event.

Simulated Upper Atmospheric Response to High-resolution Observation-based Geomagnetic Forcing Open

Cheng Sheng, Yue Deng, William A. Bristow, Y. Nishimura, R. A. Heelis · 2022

GITM outputs for the March 26th, 2014 event, used to generate the figures in the manuscript.

Topside Plasma Flows in the Equatorial Ionosphere and their Relationships to F-Region Winds near 250 km Open

R. A. Heelis, Yun‐Ju Chen, Matthew Depew, Brian J. Harding, T. J. Immel , et al. · 2022

Earth and Space Science Open Archive This preprint has been submitted to and is under consideration at Journal of Geophysical Research - Space Physics. ESSOAr is a venue for early communication or feedback before peer review. Data may be p…

Q2DW‐Tide and ‐Ionosphere Interactions as Observed From ICON and Ground‐Based Radars Open

J. M. Forbes, R. A. Heelis, Xiaoli Zhang, Christoph R. Englert, Brian J. Harding , et al. · 2021

A quasi‐2‐day wave (Q2DW) event during January‐February, 2020, is investigated in terms of its propagation from 96 to 250 km as a function of latitude (10°S to 30°N), its nonlinear interactions with migrating tides to produce 16 and 9.6‐h …

Isolated Peak of Oxygen Ion Fraction in the Post‐Noon Equatorial F‐Region: ICON and SAMI3/WACCM‐X Open

Jaeheung Park, J. D. Huba, R. A. Heelis, Christoph R. Englert · 2021

In the equatorial region, the fraction of oxygen ions (O + ) in the topside ionosphere contains information on the source altitude of the plasma, which is controlled, in part, by the vertical plasma motion in the F‐region. Previous studies…

Atmosphere‐Ionosphere (A‐I) Coupling as Viewed by ICON: Day‐to‐Day Variability Due to Planetary Wave (PW)‐Tide Interactions Open

J. M. Forbes, Xiaoli Zhang, R. A. Heelis, R. Stoneback, Christoph R. Englert , et al. · 2021

Coincident Ionospheric Connections Explorer (ICON) measurements of neutral winds, plasma drifts and total ion densities (:=Ne, electron density) are analyzed during January 1–21, 2020 to reveal the relationship between neutral winds and io…

The electrodynamic influence of thermospheric winds in the daytime ionosphere. Open

T. J. Immel, Brian J. Harding, R. A. Heelis, Astrid Maute, J. M. Forbes , et al. · 2021

<p>The electrodynamic influence of thermospheric winds is an effect thought to dominate the development of<span> </span>the daytime low-latitude ionosphere, through the generation of dynamo currents and associate…

Control of ionospheric plasma velocities by thermospheric winds Open

T. J. Immel, Brian J. Harding, R. A. Heelis, Astrid Maute, JM Forbes , et al. · 2021

Earth’s equatorial ionosphere exhibits significant and unpredictable day-to-day variations in density and morphology . This presents difficulties in preparing for adverse impacts on technological systems even 24 hours in advance . This beh…

Validation of FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC2 IVM ion density and TGRS orbit electron density Open

Min‐Yang Chou, John Braun, Qian Wu, R. A. Heelis, Irina Zakharenkova , et al. · 2021

In this study, the comparison between the orbit electron density and total ion density measured by payloads of Tri-GNSS Radio-Occultation System (TGRS) and Ion Velocity Meter (IVM) onboard the FORMOSAT-7/COMSIC2 (F7/C2) satellites is prese…

Ion Velocity and Temperature Variation Around Topside Nighttime Irregularities: Contrast Between Low‐ and Mid‐Latitude Regions Open

Jaeheung Park, R. A. Heelis, Chi‐Kuang Chao · 2020

Studies on low‐/mid‐latitude ionospheric irregularities have a long history, but ion temperature and drift velocity variations within the irregularities have been rarely investigated, especially at mid‐latitudes. To fill this knowledge gap…

Scintillation Observations and Response of The Ionosphere to Electrodynamics (SORTIE) Mission First Light Open

Erik Strömberg, G. Crowley, Irfan Azeem, C. V. Fish, Crystal Frazier , et al. · 2020

At low and middle latitudes, wave-like plasma perturbations are thought to provide the seeds for larger perturbations that may evolve non-linearly to produce irregularities, which in turn have deleterious effects on HF communications and g…

The SPORT Mission and an Ad-Hoc Constellation in the Mid and Low-Latitude Ionosphere Open

C. Swenson, J. F. Spann, Otavio Durão, Luis Loures, R. A. Heelis , et al. · 2019

The Scintillation Prediction Observations Research Task (SPORT) is a 6U CubeSat mission to advance the scientific understanding of the preconditions leading to equatorial plasma bubbles. The scientific literature describes these preconditi…

Plasma Dynamics Associated With Equatorial Ionospheric Irregularities Open

J. M. Smith, R. A. Heelis · 2018

The Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System satellite was operational from 2008, a period of deep solar minimum, to 2015, a period of moderate solar conditions. The behavior of the vertical plasma drift and the distribution of p…

The Scintillation Prediction Observations Research Task (SPORT): A Multinational Science Mission using a CubeSat Open

J. F. Spann, L. Habash Krause, C. Swenson, R. A. Heelis, Rebecca Bishop , et al. · 2017

The Scintillation Prediction Observations Research Task (SPORT) is a 6U CubeSat pathfinder mission to address the very compelling but difficult problem of understanding the preconditions leading to equatorial plasma bubbles. The scientific…

Trimetric Imaging of the Martian Ionosphere Using a CubeSat Constellation Open

Edgar A. Bering, L. Andersson, Ji Chen, James Cutler, Kentaro Hara , et al. · 2017

Earth's ion upflow associated with polar cap patches global and in-situ observations Open

Q. H. Zhang, Qiugang Zong, M. M. Lockwood, R. A. Heelis, M. R. Hairston , et al. · 2016

We report simultaneous global monitoring of a patch of ionization and in situ observation of ion upflow at the center of the polar cap region during a geomagnetic storm. Our observations indicate strong fluxes of upwelling O+ ions originat…

Automated identification of discrete, lightning‐generated, multiple‐dispersed whistler waves in C/NOFS‐VEFI very low frequency observations Open

A. R. Jacobson, R. H. Holzworth, R. F. Pfaff, R. A. Heelis · 2016

Automated wave feature detection is required to efficiently analyze large archives of very low frequency broadband recordings for discrete whistler identification and feature extraction. We describe a new method to do this, even in the pre…

The Scintillation Prediction Observations Research Task (SPORT)Mission Open

James F. Spann, G. Le, Charles Swenson, Otavio Durão, Luis Loures , et al. · 2016

SPORT is a science mission using a 6U CubeSat and integrated ground network that will (1) advance understanding and (2) enable improved predictions of scintillation occurrence that impact GPS signals and radio communications. This is the s…

Duskside enhancement of equatorial zonal electric field response to convection electric fields during the St. Patrick's Day storm on 17 March 2015 Open

S. Tulasi Ram, T. Yokoyama, Yuichi Otsuka, K. Shiokawa, S. Sripathi , et al. · 2015

The equatorial zonal electric field responses to prompt penetration of eastward convection electric fields (PPEF) were compared at closely spaced longitudinal intervals at dusk to premidnight sectors during the intense geomagnetic storm of…

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