[P-EM12] Coupling Processes in the Atmosphere-Ionosphere System

[PEM12-20] Three-dimensional Simulation of Equatorial Spread F: Effects of Field-aligned Plasma Flow and Ionospheric Conductivity

*Zezhong Li^1,2, Jiuhou Lei¹, Binzheng Zhang³, Tatsuhiro Yokoyama² (1.School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, 2.Research Institute for Sustainable Humanosphere, Kyoto University, 3.Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Hong Kong)

Keywords:equatorial spread-F (ESF), equatorial plasma bubbles (EPB), numerical simulation, ionospheric conductivity, field-aligned plasma flow

Recently a Three-dimensional EquatoriaL spread F (TELF) model using high-resolving power advection schemes has been developed. With the inclusion of the field-aligned plasma flow and realistic ionospheric conductivity configuration, the TELF model reproduced typical features of the observed ESF phenomena, including plasma depletions along flux tubes, geomagnetic conjugate irregularities, and ESF morphology as seen in ground optical and satellite observations. Through control simulations, the effects of field-aligned plasma flow and ionospheric conductivity on ESF are investigated. It is found that field-aligned plasma flow could inhibit the growth of bubbles by modulating the ionospheric conductivity distribution along field lines, and the TELF model is more appropriate for simulating topside bubbles due to a more reasonable ionospheric conductivity configuration compared to the two-dimensional model. Additionally, the simulations demonstrate that the amplitude and altitude of the initial perturbations can also affect the growth rate of ESF by modulating the polarization electric fields.