Magnetospheric convection and the high latitude F2 ionosphere

Abstract

Behavior of the polar ionospheric F-layer as it is convected through the cleft, over the polar cap, and through the night side F-layer trough zone was investigated. Passage through the cleft adds of the order of 200,000 ions/cu cm in the vicinity of the F 2 peak and redistributes the ionization above approximately 400 km altitude to conform with an increased electron temperature. The F-layer is also raised of the order of 20 km in altitude by the convection electric field. In the night soft electron precipitation zone, the layer is lowered in altitude by the convection electric field, and then decays, primarily by chemical recombination, as it convects equatorward and around the dawn side of the earth. In the absence of ionization sources, decay by factors of the order of 100 to 1000 occur prior to entry into the sunlit hemisphere, thus forming the F-layer night trough