Browsing by Author "Foss, Victoria"
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Item Open Access Molecular Ions in Ion Upflows and their Effect on Hot Atomic Oxygen Production(2019-01-25) Foss, Victoria; Yau, Andrew W.; Cully, Christopher M.; Wieser, Michael E.We present results from the Imaging and Rapid Scanning Mass Spectrometer (IRM) on board the Enhanced Polar Outflow Probe (e-POP), on the occurrence morphology and frequency of molecular ions in the topside ionosphere. Molecular ions are observed at all e-POP altitudes at high latitudes, in much greater abundances than predicted by empirical models of the ionosphere, during both active and quiet times. Large count rate events occur in greater frequency in the pre-midnight sector (20-22 magnetic local time (MLT)). These large count rate events also show a correlation to the main and recovery phases of large geomagnetic storms. Molecular NO+ and O2+ ions can undergo dissociative recombination with electrons to produce non-thermal oxygen atoms, which disturb the local equilibrium and increase satellite drag in low Earth orbit (LEO). We simulate this production with the linearized Boltzmann equation using both the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) and augmented models based on IRM observations. It is found that NO+ concentrations of 10% result in an apparent hot temperature of 0.19 eV, or 0.3 eV in the case of O2+. We discuss the significance of these results as well as their implications on magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere (MIT) coupling.