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

[PEM12-19] Examining metal ion transport’s contribution to the sporadic E layer occurrence in the summertime southern hemisphere

*Satoshi Andoh¹, Akinori Saito², Hiroyuki Shinagawa³ (1.National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, 2.Department of Geophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, 3.International Research Center for Space and Planetary Environmental Science, Kyushu University)

Keywords:Sporadic E layer, Simulation, Metal ion, Ionosphere

The simulation of the sporadic E (Es) occurrence distribution at middle and low latitudes in the summer southern hemisphere is presented. The Es distribution in the summer southern hemisphere, which shows a salient decrease around Southern Africa, has been considered owing to the geomagnetic field configuration. In this study, we conducted Es simulations for the summer southern middle and low latitudes. The simulated Es distribution showed a qualitative agreement with radio occultation observations by COSMIC-1. The simulated Es distributions did not differ significantly with or without the longitudinal variations in the geomagnetic fields. Zonal ion transport driven by diurnal and semi-diurnal tides swept out metal ions from around Southern Africa, significantly reducing the EsL occurrence there. We found that the metal ion transport can be more important for the Es distribution than the geomagnetic field configuration in the summertime southern hemisphere.