Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances Detected by the Scintillation Observations and Response of The Ionosphere to Electrodynamics (SORTIE) CubeSat at 420 km Altitude Journal Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • The Scintillation Observations and Response of The Ionosphere to; Electrodynamics (SORTIE) mission is a 6U CubeSat that has been making; ionospheric measurements at 420 km altitude since February 19, 2020. The; SORTIE sensor suite includes an Ion Velocity Meter (IVM), which is used; in the present study to detect and characterize Traveling Ionospheric; Disturbances (TIDs). On July 11, 2020 the SORTIE orbit passed over; near-concentric TIDs that were seen in the Total Electron Content (TEC); data from ground-based Global Positioning System receivers distributed; across the COntiguous United States (CONUS). The TID wave; characteristics estimated from the IVM data agree well with those; determined from the ground-based TEC data. The wave periods derived from; the SORTIE data are shorter than the TID periods in the TEC data but are; anticipated and explained in terms of the classical Doppler effect. A; numerical simulation was performed using the Weather Research and; Forecasting (WRF) model that shows excitation of atmospheric gravity; waves (AGWs) from a deep convective storm over Texas preceding TID; observations by SORTIE. We show that these AGWs were observed at; stratospheric heights in close proximity to the convective storm by the; Atmospheric Infrared Sounder onboard the NASA Aqua satellite, and in the; lowermost mesosphere by the Cloud Imaging and Particle Size instrument; onboard the NASA Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere satellite. These; storm-generated AGWs, or the associated higher-order AGWs, are the; likely sources of the TIDs observed in the ground-based TEC and SORTIE; IVM data.

publication date

  • May 19, 2022

has restriction

  • hybrid

Date in CU Experts

  • May 24, 2022 10:48 AM

Full Author List

  • Azeem I; Crowely G; Wu W; Randall CE; Harvey VL; Sharon SL; Alexander MJ; Venkatarmani K; Stoneback RA; Perdue M

author count

  • 16

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