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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Astron. Space Sci.
Sec. Space Physics
Volume 11 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fspas.2024.1465230
This article is part of the Research Topic Frontier Research in Equatorial Aeronomy and Space Physics View all 4 articles

Influences of the Quasi-Two-Day Wave on Plasma Bubble Behavior over South America

Provisionally accepted
Katrina Bossert Katrina Bossert 1*Komal Kumari Komal Kumari 2Pavel Inchin Pavel Inchin 3Jessica Norrell Jessica Norrell 1Stephen Eckermann Stephen Eckermann 4Pierre-Dominique Pautet Pierre-Dominique Pautet 5Carlos Martinis Carlos Martinis 6Carl Kjellstrand Carl Kjellstrand 1Sophie Phillips Sophie Phillips 1Jonathan Snively Jonathan Snively 7Yucheng Zhao Yucheng Zhao 5Matthew Zettergren Matthew Zettergren 7
  • 1 Arizona State University, Tempe, United States
  • 2 University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), Boulder, Colorado, United States
  • 3 Computational Physics (United States), Springfield, Virginia, United States
  • 4 Naval Research Laboratory, Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States
  • 5 Utah State University, Logan, Utah, United States
  • 6 Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts, United States
  • 7 Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Florida, United States

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

    Equatorial Plasma Bubbles (EPBs) can significantly alter ionospheric densities. EPBs are known to fluctuate both seasonally and day to day, and have been linked to changes in solar activity, geomagnetic activity, and seeding resulting from dynamics occurring at lower altitudes. Here, EPB activity is investigated over a fifteen-day period with overlapping coincident ground-based 630nm oxygen airglow measurements, near-infrared hydroxyl mesospheric temperature mapper (MTM) measurements, and Rate Of change of Total Electron Content Index (ROTI) values. The data are compared with the Navy Global Environmental Model (NAVGEM) reanalysis over the same time period. It is found that several days with strong EPB activity coincided with the positive/northward meridional wind phase of the quasi-two-day wave (QTDW) in the mesosphere. These initial observations indicate correlations of the QTDW phase and the occurrence rates of EPBs, and suggest a need for further investigations to assess potential causal relationships that may affect the variability and prevalence of EPBs.

    Keywords: equatorial plasma bubbles, Quasi-Two-Day-Wave, Roti, gravity waves (GWs), airglow

    Received: 15 Jul 2024; Accepted: 02 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Bossert, Kumari, Inchin, Norrell, Eckermann, Pautet, Martinis, Kjellstrand, Phillips, Snively, Zhao and Zettergren. 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: Katrina Bossert, Arizona State University, Tempe, United States

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