Multi-site Fabry-Perot Interferometer Measurement of Thermospheric Neutral Winds and Temperatures in Western South America

A particularly important region including the geomagnetic equator that has remained largely unsampled with respect to thermospheric winds is the area of Western South America (WSA) extending from ~35°S to ~5°S. This is a combined result of the lack of Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) observatories together with the deleterious effects of the extreme radiation experienced by spaceborne instruments within the South-Atlantic Anomaly that overlaps with the WSA. Accordingly, the relationship between these wind fields and the plasma dynamics within the WSA caused by the Appleton fountain effect operating over the geomagnetic equator has remained largely unexplored. We aim to study the neutral dynamics of the low and midlatitude ionosphere-thermosphere (IT) region between the locations of the El Leoncito, Argentina (31.8°S, 69.3°W) and Jicamarca, Peru (11.9°S, 76.9°W) using currently operating FPI at these sites and at Nasca, Peru (14.9°S, 74.9°W). To achieve proper sampling, the FPI at Nasca will be relocated to Moquegua, Peru (16.8°S, 70.7°W) and another FPI (previously in Alaska) will be relocated to Alto-Chorrillo, Argentina (24.2°S, 66.5°W). This multi-site distribution of FPIs will allow the long-term monitoring of thermospheric wind and temperature over a latitudinal span of 2000 km with a site-to-site spacing of ~7° across the WSA. This FPI chain will monitor the thermospheric winds and temperatures across the equatorial ionization anomaly. They will be combined with All-Sky Imager data to study phenomena that affects the IT system such as the Midnight Temperature Maximum (MTM), that generates the brightness wave, the occurrence of plasma perturbations, like the Medium Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances and Equatorial Spread-F. Of particular interest is the possible correlation between the F-region Jicamarca plasma vertical ion drifts and the latitudinal distribution of thermospheric winds.