open access

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/62801

Imaging the midlatitude sporadic E plasma patches with a coordinated observation of spaceborne InSAR and GPS total electron content

英語

2016-02-24

American Geophysical Union

Geophysical research letters

43

1419-1425

Kilometer-scale fine structures of midlatitude sporadic E (Es) plasma patches have been directly imaged for the first time by an interferogram derived from L band Advanced Land Observation Satellite/Phased Array-type L band Synthetic Aperture Radar data obtained over southwestern Japan. The synthetic aperture radar interferogram captured the eastern part of a large-scale frontal structure of daytime midlatitude Es which spans over 250 km in the east-northeast to west-southwest direction. Fine structures are characterized by frontal and disc-shaped patches which are elongated in the same direction as the large-scale frontal structure. Length and width of the disc-shaped patches are 10–20 km and 5–10 km, respectively, and they are quasi-periodically located with a typical separation of 10–15 km. The Kelvin-Helmholtz instability with the vertical shear of zonal winds is considered to be the most likely candidate for the generation mechanism of the frontal patch and disc-shaped patches aligned in the zonal direction.

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