TY - JOUR A1 - Park, Jaeheung A1 - Lühr, Hermann A1 - Kervalishvili, Guram N. A1 - Rauberg, Jan A1 - Michaelis, Ingo A1 - Stolle, Claudia A1 - Kwak, Young-Sil T1 - Nighttime magnetic field fluctuations in the topside ionosphere at midlatitudes and their relation to medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances: The spatial structure and scale sizes JF - Journal of geophysical research : Space physics N2 - Previous studies suggested that electric and/or magnetic field fluctuations observed in the nighttime topside ionosphere at midlatitudes generally originate from quiet time nocturnal medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs). However, decisive evidences for the connection between the two have been missing. In this study we make use of the multispacecraft observations of midlatitude magnetic fluctuations (MMFs) in the nighttime topside ionosphere by the Swarm constellation. The analysis results show that the area hosting MMFs is elongated in the NW-SE (NE-SW) direction in the Northern (Southern) Hemisphere. The elongation direction and the magnetic field polarization support that the area hosting MMFs is nearly field aligned. All these properties of MMFs suggest that they have close relationship with MSTIDs. Expectation values of root-mean-square field-aligned currents associated with MMFs are up to about 4nA/m(2). MMF coherency significantly drops for longitudinal distances of 1 degrees. KW - midlatitude nighttime magnetic fluctuation KW - nighttime MSTID KW - Swarm constellation Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2015JA021315 SN - 2169-9380 SN - 2169-9402 VL - 120 IS - 8 SP - 6818 EP - 6830 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Park, Jaeheung A1 - Stolle, Claudia A1 - Yamazaki, Yosuke A1 - Rauberg, Jan A1 - Michaelis, Ingo A1 - Olsen, Nils T1 - Diagnosing low-/mid-latitude ionospheric currents using platform magnetometers BT - CryoSat-2 and GRACE-FO JF - Earth, planets and space N2 - Electric currents flowing in the terrestrial ionosphere have conventionally been diagnosed by low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites equipped with science-grade magnetometers and long booms on magnetically clean satellites. In recent years, there are a variety of endeavors to incorporate platform magnetometers, which are initially designed for navigation purposes, to study ionospheric currents. Because of the suboptimal resolution and significant noise of the platform magnetometers, however, most of the studies were confined to high-latitude auroral regions, where magnetic field deflections from ionospheric currents easily exceed 100 nT. This study aims to demonstrate the possibility of diagnosing weak low-/mid-latitude ionospheric currents based on platform magnetometers. We use navigation magnetometer data from two satellites, CryoSat-2 and the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment Follow-On (GRACE-FO), both of which have been intensively calibrated based on housekeeping data and a high-precision geomagnetic field model. Analyses based on 8 years of CryoSat-2 data as well as similar to 1.5 years of GRACE-FO data reproduce well-known climatology of inter-hemispheric field-aligned currents (IHFACs), as reported by previous satellite missions dedicated to precise magnetic observations. Also, our results show that C-shaped structures appearing in noontime IHFAC distributions conform to the shape of the South Atlantic Anomaly. The F-region dynamo currents are only partially identified in the platform magnetometer data, possibly because the currents are weaker than IHFACs in general and depend significantly on altitude and solar activity. Still, this study evidences noontime F-region dynamo currents at the highest altitude (717 km) ever reported. We expect that further data accumulation from continuously operating missions may reveal the dynamo currents more clearly during the next solar maximum. KW - Platform magnetometers KW - CryoSat-2 KW - GRACE-FO KW - Inter-hemispheric KW - field-aligned currents KW - F-region dynamo currents Y1 - 2020 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-020-01274-3 SN - 1343-8832 SN - 1880-5981 VL - 72 IS - 1 PB - Springer CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Xiong, Chao A1 - Stolle, Claudia A1 - Park, Jaeheung T1 - Climatology of GPS signal loss observed by Swarm satellites JF - Annales geophysicae N2 - By using 3-year global positioning system (GPS) measurements from December 2013 to November 2016, we provide in this study a detailed survey on the climatology of the GPS signal loss of Swarm onboard receivers. Our results show that the GPS signal losses prefer to occur at both low latitudes between +/- 5 and +/- 20 degrees magnetic latitude (MLAT) and high latitudes above 60 degrees MLAT in both hemispheres. These events at all latitudes are observed mainly during equinoxes and December solstice months, while totally absent during June solstice months. At low latitudes the GPS signal losses are caused by the equatorial plasma irregularities shortly after sunset, and at high latitude they are also highly related to the large density gradients associated with ionospheric irregularities. Additionally, the high-latitude events are more often observed in the Southern Hemisphere, occurring mainly at the cusp region and along nightside auroral latitudes. The signal losses mainly happen for those GPS rays with elevation angles less than 20 degrees, and more commonly occur when the line of sight between GPS and Swarm satellites is aligned with the shell structure of plasma irregularities. Our results also confirm that the capability of the Swarm receiver has been improved after the bandwidth of the phase-locked loop (PLL) widened, but the updates cannot radically avoid the interruption in tracking GPS satellites caused by the ionospheric plasma irregularities. Additionally, after the PLL bandwidth increased larger than 0.5 Hz, some unexpected signal losses are observed even at middle latitudes, which are not related to the ionospheric plasma irregularities. Our results suggest that rather than 1.0 Hz, a PLL bandwidth of 0.5 Hz is a more suitable value for the Swarm receiver. KW - Ionosphere KW - equatorial ionosphere KW - ionospheric irregularities KW - radio science KW - radio wave propagation Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-36-679-2018 SN - 0992-7689 SN - 1432-0576 VL - 36 IS - 2 SP - 679 EP - 693 PB - Copernicus CY - Göttingen ER - TY - GEN A1 - Xiong, Chao A1 - Stolle, Claudia A1 - Lühr, Hermann A1 - Park, Jaeheung A1 - Fejer, Bela G. A1 - Kervalishvili, Guram N. T1 - Scale analysis of equatorial plasma irregularities derived from Swarm constellation T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - In this study, we investigated the scale sizes of equatorial plasma irregularities (EPIs) using measurements from the Swarm satellites during its early mission and final constellation phases. We found that with longitudinal separation between Swarm satellites larger than 0.4°, no significant correlation was found any more. This result suggests that EPI structures include plasma density scale sizes less than 44 km in the zonal direction. During the Swarm earlier mission phase, clearly better EPI correlations are obtained in the northern hemisphere, implying more fragmented irregularities in the southern hemisphere where the ambient magnetic field is low. The previously reported inverted-C shell structure of EPIs is generally confirmed by the Swarm observations in the northern hemisphere, but with various tilt angles. From the Swarm spacecrafts with zonal separations of about 150 km, we conclude that larger zonal scale sizes of irregularities exist during the early evening hours (around 1900 LT). T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1112 KW - Equatorial plasma irregularities KW - ionospheric scale lengths KW - Swarm constellation Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-431842 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 1112 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Park, Jaeheung A1 - Lühr, Hermann A1 - Kervalishvili, Guram A1 - Rauberg, Jan A1 - Stolle, Claudia A1 - Kwak, Young-Sil A1 - Lee, Woo Kyoung T1 - Morphology of high-latitude plasma density perturbations as deduced from the total electron content measurements onboard the Swarm constellation JF - Journal of geophysical research : A, Space physics N2 - In this study, we investigate the climatology of high-latitude total electron content (TEC) variations as observed by the dual-frequency Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receivers onboard the Swarm satellite constellation. The distribution of TEC perturbations as a function of geographic/magnetic coordinates and seasons reasonably agrees with that of the Challenging Minisatellite Payload observations published earlier. Categorizing the high-latitude TEC perturbations according to line-of-sight directions between Swarm and GNSS satellites, we can deduce their morphology with respect to the geomagnetic field lines. In the Northern Hemisphere, the perturbation shapes are mostly aligned with the L shell surface, and this anisotropy is strongest in the nightside auroral (substorm) and subauroral regions and weakest in the central polar cap. The results are consistent with the well-known two-cell plasma convection pattern of the high-latitude ionosphere, which is approximately aligned with L shells at auroral regions and crossing different L shells for a significant part of the polar cap. In the Southern Hemisphere, the perturbation structures exhibit noticeable misalignment to the local L shells. Here the direction toward the Sun has an additional influence on the plasma structure, which we attribute to photoionization effects. The larger offset between geographic and geomagnetic poles in the south than in the north is responsible for the hemispheric difference. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JA023086 SN - 2169-9380 SN - 2169-9402 VL - 122 IS - 1 SP - 1338 EP - 1359 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Park, Jaeheung A1 - Lühr, Hermann A1 - Stolle, Claudia A1 - Rodriguez-Zuluaga, Juan A1 - Knudsen, David J. A1 - Burchill, Johnathan K. A1 - Kwak, Young-Sil T1 - Statistical survey of nighttime midlatitude magnetic fluctuations: Their source location and Poynting flux as derived from the Swarm constellation JF - Journal of geophysical research : Space physics N2 - This is the first statistical survey of field fluctuations related with medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs), which considers magnetic field, electric field, and plasma density variations at the same time. Midlatitude electric fluctuations (MEFs) and midlatitude magnetic fluctuations (MMFs) observed in the nighttime topside ionosphere have generally been attributed to MSTIDs. Although the topic has been studied for several decades, statistical studies of the Poynting flux related with MEF/MMF/MSTID have not yet been conducted. In this study we make use of electric/magnetic field and plasma density observations by the European Space Agency's Swarm constellation to address the statistical behavior of the Poynting flux. We have found that (1) the Poynting flux is directed mainly from the summer to winter hemisphere, (2) its magnitude is larger before midnight than thereafter, and (3) the magnitude is not well correlated with fluctuation level of in situ plasma density. These results are discussed in the context of previous studies. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JA023408 SN - 2169-9380 SN - 2169-9402 VL - 121 SP - 11235 EP - 11248 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Xiong, Chao A1 - Stolle, Claudia A1 - Luehr, Hermann A1 - Park, Jaeheung A1 - Fejer, Bela G. A1 - Kervalishvili, Guram N. T1 - Scale analysis of equatorial plasma irregularities derived from Swarm constellation JF - Earth, planets and space N2 - In this study, we investigated the scale sizes of equatorial plasma irregularities (EPIs) using measurements from the Swarm satellites during its early mission and final constellation phases. We found that with longitudinal separation between Swarm satellites larger than 0.4 degrees, no significant correlation was found any more. This result suggests that EPI structures include plasma density scale sizes less than 44 km in the zonal direction. During the Swarm earlier mission phase, clearly better EPI correlations are obtained in the northern hemisphere, implying more fragmented irregularities in the southern hemisphere where the ambient magnetic field is low. The previously reported inverted-C shell structure of EPIs is generally confirmed by the Swarm observations in the northern hemisphere, but with various tilt angles. From the Swarm spacecrafts with zonal separations of about 150 km, we conclude that larger zonal scale sizes of irregularities exist during the early evening hours (around 1900 LT). KW - Equatorial plasma irregularities KW - Ionospheric scale lengths KW - Swarm constellation Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-016-0502-5 SN - 1880-5981 VL - 68 SP - 189 EP - 202 PB - Springer CY - Heidelberg ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Park, Jaeheung A1 - Stolle, Claudia A1 - Xiong, Chao A1 - Lühr, Hermann A1 - Pfaff, Robert F. A1 - Buchert, Stephan A1 - Martinis, Carlos R. T1 - A dayside plasma depletion observed at midlatitudes during quiet geomagnetic conditions JF - Geophysical research letters N2 - In this study we investigate a dayside, midlatitude plasma depletion (DMLPD) encountered on 22 May 2014 by the Swarm and GRACE satellites, as well as ground-based instruments. The DMLPD was observed near Puerto Rico by Swarm near 10 LT under quiet geomagnetic conditions at altitudes of 475-520 km and magnetic latitudes of similar to 25 degrees-30 degrees. The DMLPD was also revealed in total electron content observations by the Saint Croix station and by the GRACE satellites (430 km) near 16 LT and near the same geographic location. The unique Swarm constellation enables the horizontal tilt of the DMLPD to be measured (35 degrees clockwise from the geomagnetic east-west direction). Ground-based airglow images at Arecibo showed no evidence for plasma density depletions during the night prior to this dayside event. The C/NOFS equatorial satellite showed evidence for very modest plasma density depletions that had rotated into the morningside from nightside. However, the equatorial depletions do not appear related to the DMLPD, for which the magnetic apex height is about 2500 km. The origins of the DMLPD are unknown, but may be related to gravity waves. Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL062655 SN - 0094-8276 SN - 1944-8007 VL - 42 IS - 4 SP - 967 EP - 974 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - GEN A1 - Xiong, Chao A1 - Stolle, Claudia A1 - Park, Jaeheung T1 - Climatology of GPS signal loss observed by Swarm satellites T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - By using 3-year global positioning system (GPS)measurements from December 2013 to November 2016, we provide in this study a detailed survey on the climatology of the GPS signal loss of Swarm onboard receivers. Our results show that the GPS signal losses prefer to occur at both low latitudes between ±5 and ±20 ◦ magnetic latitude (MLAT) and high latitudes above 60 ◦ MLAT in both hemispheres. These events at all latitudes are observed mainly during equinoxes and December solstice months, while totally absent during June solstice months. At low latitudes the GPS signal losses are caused by the equatorial plasma irregularities shortly after sunset, and at high latitude they are also highly related to the large density gradients associated with ionospheric irregularities. Additionally, the high-latitude events are more often observed in the Southern Hemisphere, occurring mainly at the cusp region and along nightside auroral latitudes. The signal losses mainly happen for those GPS rays with elevation angles less than 20 ◦ , and more commonly occur when the line of sight between GPS and Swarm satellites is aligned with the shell structure of plasma irregularities. Our results also confirm that the capability of the Swarm receiver has been improved after the bandwidth of the phase-locked loop (PLL) widened, but the updates cannot radically avoid the interruption in tracking GPS satellites caused by the ionospheric plasma irregularities. Additionally, after the PLL bandwidth increased larger than 0.5 Hz, some unexpected signal losses are observed even at middle latitudes, which are not related to the ionospheric plasma irregularities. Our results suggest that rather than 1.0 Hz, a PLL bandwidth of 0.5 Hz is a more suitable value for the Swarm receiver. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 712 KW - Ionosphere (equatorial ionosphere; ionospheric irregularities) KW - radio science (radio wave propagation) Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-427391 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 712 ER -