HR: 0800h
AN: SA21A-02    [Abstracts]
TI: Zonal Distribution of Plasma Bubble Occurrence Studied with Ground-based GPS Receiver Networks
AU: * Nishioka, M
EM: nishioka@kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp
AF: Department of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, 4th Bldg, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto Univ., Oiwake, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan
AU: Saito, A
EM: saitoua@kugi.kyoto-u.ac.jp
AF: Department of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, 4th Bldg, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto Univ., Oiwake, Kitashirakawa, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8502, Japan
AU: Tsugawa, T
EM: tsugawa@nict.go.jp
AF: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, 4-2-1, Nukui- Kitamachi, Koganei, Tokyo, 184-8795, Japan
AB: Zonal distribution of plasma bubble occurrence was investigated with ground-based GPS receiver networks between India and Guam. Total Electron Content (TEC) measurement by a ground-based GPS receiver can observe spatial and temporal variations of plasma bubble activity in its field-of-view of 700km. To increase its field-of-view, plasma bubbles were back-traced to the location where they were generated with three assumptions for their generation time, drift velocity, and decay of their activity. The "back-trace" method makes possible to reveal the zonal distribution of plasma bubble activity for wider than 2,000km in the zonal direction from single ground-based GPS receiver. In this study, zonal distribution of plasma bubble activity was investigated for wider than 10,000km from 60°E to 150°E using 11 ground-based GPS receivers data in 2003. 1,585 of plasma bubbles were detected, which were almost all of the plasma bubbles appeared in the are and in the period. The estimated plasma bubble distribution using GPS network was consistent with that measured by the FORMOSAT-1 satellite. Statistical study was done for the zonal width of plasma bubble and intervals between plasma bubbles. It was found that more than 60% out of 1,585 plasma bubbles had shorter zonal width than ∼150km. It was also found that more than 80% of intervals of plasma bubbles had shorter length than ∼350km. Plasma drift velocity shear and atmospheric gravity wave could control the zonal distribution of plasma bubbles.
DE: 2415 Equatorial ionosphere
DE: 2427 Ionosphere/atmosphere interactions (0335)
DE: 2435 Ionospheric disturbances
DE: 2439 Ionospheric irregularities
SC: SPA: Aeronomy [SA]
MN: 2009 Joint Assembly