IONISE: An Ionospheric Observational Network for Irregularity and Scintillation in East and Southeast Asia. Issue 8 (6th August 2020) - Sun, Wenjie
Abstract: An Ionospheric Observational Network for Irregularity and Scintillation in East and Southeast Asia (IONISE) is developed to identify and study the short‐term and fine‐scale ionospheric variations over China. The IONISE network mainly includes three crossed chains of Beidou geostationary satellite total electron content (TEC)/scintillation receivers along 110°E, 23°N, and 40°N respectively, multistatic portable digital ionosondes and bistatic very high‐frequency radars. Based on the IONISE observations, we report some preliminary results of ionospheric disturbances and irregularities, including (1) initially generated and zonally drifting equatorial plasma bubbles and related scintillations, (2) traveling ionospheric disturbances from middle to low latitudes, (3) drift of strong sporadic E structures over a wide area of more than 1, 000 km, (4) fine‐scale ionospheric perturbation and regional TEC gradient, and (5) general features of ionospheric response to geomagnetic storms. Possible mechanisms responsible for these ionospheric phenomena are discussed. The IONISE provides new data set for investigation on ionospheric disturbances of various scales in a broad region with dense observations along specific latitude/longitude. Plain Language Summary: There are various types of ionospheric variations under different triggering conditions. To reveal possible sources responsible for short‐term variability of ionosphere, trace the occurrence and movements of ionospheric irregularities and associated scintillations along the same longitude/latitude, and capture ionospheric disturbances of various scales over China, an Ionospheric Observational Network for Irregularity and Scintillation in East and Southeast Asia (IONISE), which consists of multiple types of instruments including Beidou geostationary (BD‐GEO) total electron content (TEC)/scintillation receiver, portable digital ionosonde (PDI), and very high‐frequency (VHF) radar, is developed. The BD‐GEO TEC/scintillation measurements continuously made at the dense array of fixed ionospheric pierce points can track ionospheric disturbances of various scales along the same longitude/latitude, making it possible for investigation of different types of ionospheric disturbances. The Doppler velocity measurements by PDI are sensitive to ionospheric perturbations with weak amplitude which may be difficult to be detected from the general parameters such as F layer peak or virtual height derived from ionosonde observation. The spatially separated VHF radars with imaging capability of field aligned irregularities (FAIs) may capture the fine‐scale evolution of FAIs. The preliminary results presented in this paper demonstrate the capability by IONISE for ionospheric disturbances of various scales such as equatorial plasma bubbles, traveling ionospheric disturbances, strong sporadic E structure, fine‐scale ionospheric perturbation, regional TEC gradient, and ionospheric response to geomagnetic storms. It is expected that new observations from the IONISE will help to achieve a better understanding on the potential mechanisms for the multiscale ionospheric disturbances. Key Points: An ionospheric observational network for irregularity and scintillation in East and Southeast Asia (IONISE) is developed Preliminary results of regional ionospheric gradients, perturbation, traveling disturbance, and irregularities by IONISE are presented IONISE provides a new capability to identify regional short‐term and fine‐scale ionospheric variations