Echo occurrence in the southern polar ionosphere for the SuperDARN Dome C East and Dome C North radars

Maria Federica Marcucci (1) , Igino Coco (2) , Stefano Massetti (1) , Alessio Pignalberi (2) , Victoriya Forsythe , Michael Pezzopane (2) , Alexander Koustov (3) , Simona Longo (4) , David Biondi , Enrico Simeoli , Giuseppe Consolini , Monica Laurenza , Aurélie Marchaudon (5) , Andrea Satta , Alessandro Cirioni , Angelo de Simone , Angelo Olivieri (4) , Alessandro Baù (6) , Alberto Salvati (4)

1 INAF - Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica
2 INGV - Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia - Sezione di Roma
3 U of S - University of Saskatchewan [Saskatoon, Canada]
4 CNR - National Research Council of Italy | Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
5 IRAP - Institut de recherche en astrophysique et planétologie
6 UNIMIB - Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca = University of Milano-Bicocca

In this paper, echo occurrence rates for the Dome C East (DCE) and the new Dome C North (DCN) radars are studied. We report the ionospheric and ground scatter echo occurrence rates for selected periods around equinoxes and solstices in the final part of the solar cycle XXIV. The occurrence maps built in Altitude Adjusted Corrected Geomagnetic latitude and Magnetic Local Time coordinates show peculiar patterns highly variable with season. The comparisons of the radar observations with the International Reference Ionosphere model electron density and with ray tracing simulations allow us to explain the major features of observed patterns in terms of electron density variations. The study shows the great potential of the DCE and DCN radar combination to the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) convection mapping in terms of monitoring key regions of the high-latitude ionosphere critical for understanding of the magnetospheric dynamics.

Domaines: Physique de l'espace [physics.space-ph]; Géophysique [physics.geo-ph]

Maria Federica Marcucci, Igino Coco, Stefano Massetti, Alessio Pignalberi, Victoriya Forsythe, et al.. Echo occurrence in the southern polar ionosphere for the SuperDARN Dome C East and Dome C North radars. Polar Science, 2021, 28, pp.100684. ⟨10.1016/j.polar.2021.100684⟩. ⟨hal-03382837⟩