Jicamarca Radio Observatory - Main Research Areas

Main Research Areas

The main research areas of JRO are the studies of: the equatorial stable ionosphere, the equatorial field aligned irregularities, equatorial neutral atmosphere dynamics, and meteor physics. Here are some examples of the JRO topics

  • Stable ionosphere
    • Topside: What controls the light ion distribution? Why are the equatorial profiles so different from those at Arecibo? What is the storm time response of the topside?
    • F region: Do current theories fully explain electron and ion thermal balance? Do we understand the electron collision effects on ISR theory now? What is the effect of F-region dynamics near sunset on the generation of ESF plumes? What are the effects of N-S winds on inter-hemispheric transport?
    • E region: What are the basic background parameters in the equatorial E region? What is the morphology of the density profiles in this difficult to probe region? How does this morphology affect the E-region dynamo?
    • D region: What effects do meteor ablation and mesospheric mixing have on the composition in this region?
  • Unstable Ionosphere
    • F region: What are the fundamental plasma processes, including nonlinear processes, that govern the generation of plasma plumes? What are the precursor phenomena in the late afternoon F region that control whether or not an F-region plume will be generated after sunset?
    • Daytime Valley echoes (or so-called 150 km echoes). What are the physical mechanisms causing them? (still a puzzle after more than 40 years!).
    • E region: What are the nonlinear plasma physics processes that control the final state of the equatorial electrojet instabilities? To what extent do these instabilities affect the conductivity of the E region, and by extension, the conductivity of the auroral zone E region, where similar, but stronger and more complicated, instabilities exist?
    • Neutral atmosphere dynamics. What are the tidal components at low latitudes for the different seasons and altitudes? How strong are the wind shears in the mesosphere? What are the characteristics of gravity waves? Can we see evidence of lower atmosphere gravity wave coupling with the ionosphere?
    • Meteor physics. Where are the meteoroids coming from? What are the mass and size of the meteoroids? What is the equivalent visual magnitude of meteors detected at JRO? Can we use meteor echoes to diagnose the atmosphere/ionosphere at altitudes where they occur?

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