Westward Drift of Ionospheric Plasma Irregularities over a Low to Mid-latitude Transition Region in Indian Sector

We report the observation of plasma depletions/plumes in the F region ionosphere over a low to middle latitude transition region in the Indian sector. The observation of these plasma depletions is based on the data obtained in May 2019 through the all-sky airglow CCD imager installed in the campus of University of Kashmir, Srinagar (34.12 °N, 74.83 °E, magnetic latitude 25.91 °N). The depletions on the two consecutive nights of 05 and 06 May 2019 are aligned along the North-South (N-S) direction and drift westward. Several depletion bands along with some enhancement bands are seen in the 630-nm airglow images throughout the two nights. The observed structures show certain characteristics similar to Medium Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (MSTIDs) but these airglow features are not completely periodic. Further, in the observed depletion bands some East-West asymmetries are observed along with the structured tree-like branches of the airglow depletions. Some depletion bands even bifurcate leading to the inference that the structures are signatures of plasma irregularities rather than the usual MSTIDs observed in low-mid latitude transition region. The westward drift of the depletions especially during geomagnetic quiet times over this region makes this study significant since it offers a possible evidence that shows extension of spread F irregularities from the mid latitude region to the low-mid latitude transition region. In this paper, we point out some possible mechanisms related to the occurrence of plasma depletions at this region and their westward movement during geomagnetic quiet times.

The evolution of Jupiter polar cyclones

<p>JIRAM (the Jovian InfraRed Auroral Mapper) is an infrared camera and<br>spectrometer on board Juno. JIRAM operates in the 2-5 μm spectral<br>range and is built to observe both Jupiter's infrared aurora and its<br>atmosphere. Since 2016, JIRAM has performed several observations of<br>the polar regions of the planet, thanks to the unique orbital design<br>of the Juno mission.  In the north polar region, Juno discovered, in<br>2017, the presence of an eight-cyclone structure around a single polar<br>cyclone; to the south, a polar cyclone is surrounded by five<br>circumpolar cyclones. The stability of these structures has been<br>monitored for almost 4 years. Recent observations, made at the end of<br>2019, showed that the configuration of the South Pole has temporarily<br>changed: the structure moved in a hexagon for a few months, before<br>returning to its original pentagonal shape. To the north, there are<br>significant hints that the octagonal shape may have been lost for a<br>similar period of time.<br>We find that all cyclones show a very slow, westward drift as a rigid<br>ensemble, and, in addition, they oscillate around their rest position<br>with similar timescales. These oscillations seem to propagate from<br>cyclone to cyclone. The implications of these transient deviations<br>from the symmetrical forms, which appear to be an apparent condition<br>of equilibrium, are discussed.</p>

Persistent westward drift of the geomagnetic field at the core–mantle boundary linked to recurrent high-latitude weak/reverse flux patches

SUMMARY Observations of changes in the geomagnetic field provide unique information about processes in the outer core where the field is generated. Recent geomagnetic field reconstructions based on palaeomagnetic data show persistent westward drift at high northern latitudes at the core–mantle boundary (CMB) over the past 4000 yr, as well as intermittent occurrence of high-latitude weak or reverse flux patches. To further investigate these features, we analysed time-longitude plots of a processed version of the geomagnetic field model pfm9k.1a, filtered to remove quasi-stationary features of the field. Our results suggest that westward drift at both high northern and southern latitudes of the CMB have been a persistent feature of the field over the past 9000 yr. In the Northern Hemisphere we detect two distinct signals with drift rates of 0.09° and 0.25° yr−1 and dominant zonal wavenumbers of m = 2 and 1, respectively. Comparisons with other geomagnetic field models support these observations but also highlight the importance of sedimentary data that provide crucial information on high-latitude geomagnetic field variations. The two distinct drift signals detected in the Northern Hemisphere can largely be decomposed into two westward propagating waveforms. We show that constructive interference between these two waveforms accurately predicts both the location and timing of previously observed high-latitude weak/reverse flux patches over the past 3–4 millennia. In addition, we also show that the 1125-yr periodicity signal inferred from the waveform interference correlates positively with variations in the dipole tilt over the same time period. The two identified drift signals may partially be explained by the westward motion of high-latitude convection rolls. However, the dispersion relation might also imply that part of the drift signal could be caused by magnetic Rossby waves riding on the mean background flow.

Analysis of Geomagnetic Variability by Empirical Orthogonal Functions

<p>We examine the secular variations of global geomagnetic field on long temporal scales using the IGRF model given in Gauss coefficients for 1900 - 2020. We apply the Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis to the geomagnetic field truncated at degree 6 and downward continue it to the core-mantle boundary (CMB) under the assumption of an insulating mantle. The first three EOF modes show the periods around 120, 75 and 60 years with corresponding spatial structures. These oscillational modes potentially support the manifestation of magnetic, Archimedes and Coriolis (MAC) waves in the stably stratified layer near CMB (Buffett, 2016). We also model and decompose the geomagnetic field to standing and drifting components according to trajectories of the Gauss coefficients similarly to Yukutake (2015). We then use the Complex EOF (CEOF) analysis on the drifting field. The results indicate the presence of the westward drift phenomenon but only weakly given the fact that the westward drift has only completed a fraction of a cycle during this time.</p>

Single super-vortex as a proxy for ocean surface flow fields

Empirical flow field data evaluation in a well studied ocean region along the U.S. West Coast revealed a surprisingly strong relationship between the surface integrals of kinetic energy and enstrophy (squared vorticity). This relationship defines a single isolated Gaussian super-vortex, whose fitted size parameter is related to the mean eddy size, and the square of the fitted height parameter is proportional to the sum of the square of all individual eddy amplitudes obtained by standard vortex census. This finding allows a very effective coarse-grained eddy statistics with minimal computational efforts. As an illustrative example, the westward drift velocity of eddies is determined from a simple cross correlation analysis of kinetic energy integrals.

Could hydrodynamic Rossby waves explain the westward drift?

A novel theory for the origin of the westward drift of the Earth’s magnetic field is proposed, based upon the propagation of hydrodynamic Rossby waves in the liquid outer core. These waves have the obscure property that their crests always progress eastwards—but, for a certain subset, energy can nevertheless be transmitted westwards. In fact, this subset corresponds to sheet-like flow structures, extended in both the axial and radial directions, which are likely to be preferentially excited by convective upwellings in the Earth’s rapidly rotating outer core. To enable their analysis, the quasi-geostrophic (QG) approximation is employed, which assumes horizontal motions to be independent of distance along the rotation axis, yet accounts for variations in the container height (i.e. the slope of the core–mantle boundary). By projecting the momentum equation onto flows of a QG form, a general equation governing their evolution is derived, which is then adapted for the treatment of two initial value problems—in both Cartesian and spherical geometries—which demonstrate the preference for westward energy propagation by the waves in question. The merits of this mechanism as an explanation for westward drift are discussed.

THE ESTIMATION OF WESTWARD DRIFT IN MGF ON THE NORTH AMERICA AND THE EUROPE

In this paper, we have studied the westward drift in secular variation of MGF by the dynamo theory and the observatories’ data of intermagnet.org on the North America and the Europe (1991-2006). The longitudinal and latitudinal drifts exist on the North America. And longitudinal drift is also defined on the Europe in (1991-2006). These drifts are approximation with other investigation’s results.