Ionospheric composition measurement by EISCAT using a global fit procedure

B. Cabrit (1) , W. Kofman (1)

1 CEPHAG - Centre d'Études des Phénomènes Aléatoires et Géophysiques

The aim of this paper is to show the gain of the global fit procedure compared to the classical gate-by-gate analysis in the simultaneous determination of the temperatures and composition profiles in the lower F region. A method for the evaluation of the transition altitude and the width of the transition region between molecular and atomic ions is described in the case of the EISCAT CP1 experiment; it is validated using a simulated experiment. It is shown that alternating-code gates have to be processed together with the long-pulse gates. Our new method is applied on six days of actual data. The results obtained during quiet periods are compared with independent estimations.

Domaines: Océan, Atmosphère; Sciences de la Terre

B. Cabrit, W. Kofman. Ionospheric composition measurement by EISCAT using a global fit procedure. Annales Geophysicae, 1996, 14 (12), pp.1496-1505. ⟨hal-00329062⟩