Mid-Latitude Ionosphere and Thermosphere Interaction

Using COSMIC, ground based Incoherent Scatter (ISR) and Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) data sets, we study the mid-latitude ionosphere and thermosphere interaction. It is well known that thermospheric meridional wind have a great impact on the mid-latitude ionosphere by either pushing up or down the ionosphere along the geomagnetic field lines. In fact, such effect has been used to estimate the thermospheric meridional winds. What will be more significant to space weather, however, is to be able to use the thermospheric winds to predict the ionosphere variations. In this study, we use the simultaneous data sets from COSMIC, ISR, and FPI to see if there is one-to-one ionosphere response to the thermospheric changes. We will also use TIEGCM model results to analyze the observational data. The goal is to have a more comprehensive understanding of the ion-neutral coupling in the mid-latitude region.