Volumetric reconstruction of ionospheric electric currents from
tri-static incoherent scatter radar measurements
Abstract
We present a new technique for the upcoming tri-static incoherent
scatter radar system EISCAT 3D (E3D) to perform a volumetric
reconstruction of the 3D ionospheric electric current density vector
field, focusing on the feasibility of the E3D system. The input to our
volumetric reconstruction technique are estimates of the 3D current
density perpendicular to the main magnetic field,
$\mathbf{j}_\perp$, and its
co-variance, to be obtained from E3D observations based on two main
assumptions: 1) Ions fully magnetised above the $E$ region, set to 200
km here. 2) Electrons fully magnetised above the base of our domain, set
to 90 km. In this way,
$\mathbf{j}_\perp$ estimates are
obtained without assumptions about the neutral wind field, allowing it
to be subsequently determined. The volumetric reconstruction of the full
3D current density is implemented as vertically coupled horizontal
layers represented by Spherical Elementary Current Systems with a
built-in current continuity constraint. We demonstrate that our
technique is able to retrieve the three dimensional nature of the
currents in our idealised setup, taken from a simulation of an active
auroral ionosphere using the Geospace Environment Model of Ion-Neutral
Interactions (GEMINI). The vertical current is typically less
constrained than the horizontal, but we outline strategies for
improvement by utilising additional data sources in the inversion. The
ability to reconstruct the neutral wind field perpendicular to the
magnetic field in the $E$ region is demonstrated to mostly be within
$\pm 50$ m/s in a limited region above the radar system
in our setup.