Michael Pezzopane

Formation of ionospheric irregularities over Southeast Asia during the 2015 St. Patrick's Day storm

We investigate the geospace response to the 2015 St. Patricks Day storm leveraging on instruments spread over Southeast Asia (SEA), covering a wide longitudinal sector of the low-latitude ionosphere. A regional characterization of the storm is provided, identifying the peculiarities of ionospheric irregularity formation. The novelties of this work are the characterization in a broad longitudinal range and the methodology relying on the integration of data acquired by Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers, magnetometers, ionosondes, and Swarm satellites. This work is a legacy of the project EquatoRial Ionosphere Characterization in Asia (ERICA). ERICA aimed to capture the features of both crests of the equatorial ionospheric anomaly (EIA) and trough (EIT) by means of a dedicated measurement campaign. The campaign lasted from March to October 2015 and was able to observe the ionospheric variability causing effects on radio systems, GNSS in particular. The multiinstrumental and multiparametric observations of the region enabled an in-depth investigation of the response to the largest geomagnetic storm of the current solar cycle in a region scarcely reported in literature. Our work discusses the comparison between northern and southern crests of the EIA in the SEA region. The observations recorded positive and negative ionospheric storms, spread F conditions, scintillation enhancement and inhibition, and total electron content variability. The ancillary information on the local magnetic field highlights the variety of ionospheric perturbations during the different storm phases. The combined use of ionospheric bottomside, topside, and integrated information points out how the storm affects the F layer altitude and the consequent enhancement/suppression of scintillations.

Analysis of the Regional Ionosphere at Low Latitudes in Support of the Biomass ESA Mission

Biomass is a spaceborn polarimetric P-band (435 MHz) synthetic aperture radar (SAR) in a dawn–dusk low Earth orbit. Its principal objective is to measure biomass content and change in all the Earth’s forests. The ionosphere introduces the Faraday rotation on every pulse emitted by low-frequency SAR and scintillations when the pulse traverses a region of plasma irregularities, consequently impacting the quality of the imaging. Some of these effects are due to total electron content (TEC) and its gradients along the propagation path. Therefore, an accurate assessment of the ionospheric morphology and dynamics is necessary to properly understand the impact on image quality, especially in the equatorial and tropical regions. To this scope, we have conducted an in-depth investigation of the significant noise budget introduced by the two crests of the equatorial ionospheric anomaly (EIA) over Brazil and Southeast Asia. This paper is characterized by a novel approach to conceive a SAR-oriented ionospheric assessment, aimed at detecting and identifying spatial and temporal TEC gradients, including scintillation effects and traveling ionospheric disturbances, by means of Global Navigation Satellite Systems ground-based monitoring stations. The novelty of this approach resides in the customization of the information about the impact of the ionosphere on SAR imaging as derived by local dense networks of ground instruments operating during the passes of Biomass spacecraft. The results identify the EIA crests as the regions hosting the bulk of irregularities potentially causing degradation on SAR imaging. Interesting insights about the local characteristics of low-latitudes ionosphere are also highlighted.

The first use of coordinated ionospheric radio and optical observations over Italy: Convergence of high and low latitude storm-induced effects?

Ionospheric storm effects at mid latitudes were analyzed using different ground-based instruments distributed in Italy during the 13-15 November 2012 geomagnetic storm. These included an all-sky imager (ASI) in Asiago (45.8°N, 11.5°E), a network of dual-frequencies GNSS receivers (RING network), and ionosondes in Rome (41.8°N, 12.5°E) and San Vito (40.6°N, 17.8°E). GPS measurements showed an unusual enhancement of Total Electron Content (TEC) in southern Italy, during the nights of 14 and 15 November. The ASI observed co-located enhancements of 630 nm airglow at the same time, as did variations in NmF2 measured by the ionosondes. Moreover, wave-like perturbations were identified propagating from the north. The Ensemble Empirical Mode Decomposition, applied to TEC values revealed the presence of travelling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) propagating southward between 01:30 UT and 03:00 UT on 15 November. These TIDs were characterized by weak TEC oscillations (~ ±0.5 TEC unit), period of 45 minutes and velocity of 500 m/s typical of Large Scale TIDs. Optical images showed enhanced airglow entering the field of view of the ASI from the N-NE at 02:00 UT and propagating to the S-SW, reaching the region covered by the GPS stations after 03:00 UT, when TEC fluctuations are very small (~ ±0.2 TEC unit). The enhancement of TEC and airglow observed in Southern Italy could be a consequence of a poleward expansion of the northern crest of the equatorial ionization anomaly. The enhanced airglow propagating from the north and the TEC waves resulted from energy injected at auroral latitudes as confirmed by magnetometer observations in Scandinavia.

Study of the F3 and StF4 Layers at Tucumán Near the Southern Crest of the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly in Western South America

The present investigation reports for the first time seasonal and solar activity variations of F3 and StF4 layers at the low-latitude station of Tucumán (26.9°S, 65.4°W; dip latitude 13.9°S), Argentina, by considering ionograms recorded from 2007 to 2015 by an Advanced Ionospheric Sounder-Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (AIS-INGV) digital ionosonde. Occurrences of F3 and StF4 layers are found to be higher during summer months, while they are almost nil in winter. Moreover, occurrences of F3 and StF4 layers show a solar activity dependence with higher values during high solar activity. The solar activity dependence of F3 over Tucumán is similar to that reported earlier for the low-latitude station of São José dos Campos, Brazil (dip latitude 14.1°S), but different than that reported for the near-equatorial station of Palmas (dip latitude 6.6°S), Brazil. On the other hand, the solar cycle dependence of StF4 layer is consistent with the one obtained at Palmas. This highlights the complex nature of electrodynamics characterizing the ionosphere from the magnetic equatorial to low latitudes. Moreover, as shown in previous studies, the StF4 layer is always preceded and followed by the F3 layer, and it shows a shorter lifetime than that of the F3 layer. During the considered period, 1812 days were analyzed and the F3 layer was found in 370 days (20.4%), while the StF4 layer was found in 41 days (2.3%). This means that the StF4 stratification is seen during 11% of F3 layer days.