LOFAR observations of asymmetric quasi-periodic scintillations in the
mid-latitude ionosphere.
Abstract
A travelling ionospheric disturbance (TID) containing embedded plasma
structures which generated Fresnel type asymmetric quasi-periodic
scintillations (QPS: Maruyama, 1991) was tracked over a distance of
>1200 km across Northern Europe using the LOw Frequency ARray
(LOFAR: van Haarlem et al., 2013). Broadband ionospheric scintillation
observations of these phenomena are rarely reported in the literature as
is the ability to track asymmetric QPS generating plasma structures over
such a distance. Asymmetric QPS are characterised by an initial
broadband signal fade and enhancement which is then followed by ‘ringing
pattern’ interference fringes. These results demonstrate that QPS
generating plasma structures can retain their characteristics
consistently for several hours, and over distances exceeding 1200 km. A
propagation altitude of 110 km was estimated with observations of plasma
density modulation in a sporadic-E region detected by the Juliusruh
ionosonde, and direct measurements of a wavefront from the TID by
co-located medium frequency radar, in which the front is clearly
oriented NW-SE, and at an altitude of ~110 km. The TID
propagated SW with a calculated velocity of 170 ms-1 and an azimuth
of 255°. Periodicity analysis, using the calculated velocity,
yielded a spacing between each QPS-generating plasma sub-structure of
between 20-40 km. Co-temporal GNSS data were used to establish that
these plasma density variations were very small, with a maximum
amplitude of no more than +/- 0.05 TECu deviation from the background
average.