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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Astron. Space Sci.
Sec. Space Physics
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fspas.2024.1421733
This article is part of the Research Topic Space weather: Magnetosphere Ionosphere Thermosphere (M-I-T) Coupling View all 5 articles

Statistical analysis of Low latitude Spread F at the American, Atlantic, and Pacific sectors using Digisonde Observations

Provisionally accepted
Preeti Bhaneja Preeti Bhaneja 1*Jeff Klenzing Jeff Klenzing 1Edgardo E. Pachecho Edgardo E. Pachecho 2Greg Earle Greg Earle 3Terry Bullett Terry Bullett 4
  • 1 Goddard Space Flight Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Greenbelt, United States
  • 2 Jicamarca Radio Observatory, Instituto Geofisico del Peru, Lima, Peru
  • 3 Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia, United States
  • 4 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Boulder), Boulder, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Statistical analysis of low latitude spread F is presented for three different longitudinal sectors from Jicamarca (12°S, 76.8°W, -2.5° declination angle) from 2001-2016, Ascension Island (7.9°S, 14.4°W, -15.09° declination angle,) from 2000-2014, Kwajalein (8.71°N, 167.7°E, 7.5° declination angle) from 2004-2012. Digisonde data from these stations have been processed and analyzed to study statistical variations of equatorial spread F, a diagnostic of irregular plasma structure in the ionosphere. A new automated method of spread F detection using pattern recognition and edge detection for low latitude regions is used to determine solar and seasonal variation over these three sites. An algorithm has been developed to detect the foF2 and hpF2 parameters and this has been validated by comparisons with manually scaled data as well as with SAMI2 and IRI models showing good correlation. While significant variation is not observed over the solar cycle, the different longitudes and declination angles contribute to the variations over the seasonal cycle.

    Keywords: Digisonde data, longitudinal variation, low latitude spread F, spread F statistical study, foF2 and hpF2 detection

    Received: 22 Apr 2024; Accepted: 01 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bhaneja, Klenzing, Pachecho, Earle and Bullett. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Preeti Bhaneja, Goddard Space Flight Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Greenbelt, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.