Investigating Upper Atmospheric Winds and Plasma Movement in the Ionosphere

By using ICON’s 2021 data, the relationship between the zonal (east-west) winds in the upper atmosphere (taken from MIGHTI instrument, which measures the winds)and the vertical plasma drift (taken from IVM which measures the plasma density and velocity) is determined. From the processing done, it is apparent that these upper-atmospheric winds do influence plasma movement in the ionosphere. There is a correlation, and it can potentially be used as a predicting factor.The altitude dependence of the correlations qualitatively matches Immet et al. [2021], though the high correlations at the higher altitude values were not expected. Using the ICON data from IVM and MIGHTI in Python, the next step taken was working to formulate an understanding of the potential influences of the high-altitude winds in the Earth’s upper atmosphere upon the ionosphere using multilinear regression models. Once created, this will allow for the quantification, and eventually the prediction of how upper-atmospheric winds influence plasma movement in the ionosphere. Creating this predictor that uses the wind to understand the changing ion density would be a very beneficial tool for gaining more insights into space weather and, it is highly applicable to our technology that is impacted by the ionosphere.