Ionospheric equatorial anomaly formation over Pacific and Atlantic oceans measured by NASA TOPEX satellite

Summary form only given. Previous ionospheric observations have measured total electron content (TEC) values at fixed land based locations. These observations suggest the existence of longitudinal variations in TEC values. Complementing ground data, the current NASA TOPEX mission is providing TEC data collected over oceans as a function of latitude, longitude and time starting from September 1992. With this broad data base, the authors show a more complete picture of the longitudinal dependance between the Atlantic and Pacific ocean regions and relate this dependance to plasma drifts. Periods during June and December solstice, and March and September equinox in the years 1992, through 1995, are picked to study the low-latitude regions spanning the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. TEC isodensity contours are presented by latitude versus longitude at common local time. The authors correlate these contours with results from the Phillips Laboratory ionospheric model.