BEHAVIOUR OF IONOSPHERIC TEMPERATURES DURING LOW SOLAR ACTIVITY (LSA) AND HIGH SOLAR ACTIVITY (HSA)

Abstract

- SROSS-C2 satellite data and two modelled data obtained from IRI – 2016 and NRLMSISE-00 models are used to analyze the diurnal behavior of ionospheric plasma temperatures (electron – T e and ion - T i ) and neutral temperature (T n ) during LSA (year – 1995) and HSA (year – 2000). The measured SROSS-C2 satellite data and the modelled data of IRI2016 and NRLMSIS00 was obtained over the Indian region of ~ 5-30ºN geographic latitude and ~ 65-95ºE geographic longitude at an altitude of ~500 km. Plasma temperatures (Te and Ti) show similar diurnal features while the neutral temperature (Tn) shows completely different features. During morning time, T e and Ti exhibit morning overshoot during LSA and HSA. Evening enhancement is observed only during LSA. Te and Ti as estimated by IRI2016 underestimates the measured SROSS-C2 satellite values. The Tn as estimated by both the models have similar magnitude values.