Abstract:
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The FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellite constellation
has become an important source of remote sensing data globally
distributed for the sounding of the atmosphere of the Earth and,
in particular, the ionosphere. In this study, electron density
profiles derived using the Improved Abel transform inversion in
Radio Occultation (RO) scenarios are used as input data to
derive some features regarding the topside and outside
ionospheric contribution, hence, the plasmasphere in great
extend, by means of the analysis of the integral values of the
shape functions corresponding to each density profile. The
novelty presented in this paper, with respect to previous works, is
the use of experimental data from the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC
RO-derived electron densities to infer global characterizations
and distribution of the Total Electron Content (TEC) into its
main components: ionospheric TEC and plasmaspheric TEC,
both contributing to TEC. The results show agreement with
earlier modeled and observational data from previous local
studies of the plasmaspheric contribution. The main conclusion
of this research is that the plasmasphere contributes significantly
to TEC and the ratio between plasmaspheric TEC and TEC has
been climatologically analyzed for the whole year 2007
confirming that the major relative impact of the plasmasphere is
during night time. The added value of this study is that the
results obtained are globally distributed and can help to infer a
proxy for the plasmaspheric contribution at any location over the
globe thanks to the FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC coverage. |