Identifying possible Stratification phenomenon in ionospheric F2 Layer using the data observed by the Demeter satellite: Method and Results
Abstract. Many studies have revealed the stratification phenomenon of the topside ionospheric F2 layer using ground-based or satellite-based ionograms, which can show direct signs of this phenomenon. However, it is difficult to identify this phenomenon using the satellite-based in situ electron density data. Therefore, a statistical method, using the shuffle resampling skill, is adopted in this paper. For the first time, in situ electron density data, recorded by the same Langmuir probe onboard the Demeter satellite at different altitudes, are analyzed and a possible stratification phenomenon is identified using the proposed method. Our results show that the nighttime stratification, possibly a permanent phenomenon, can cover most longitudes near the geomagnetic equator, which is not found from the daytime data. The arch-like nighttime stratification decreases slowly on the summer hemisphere and thus extends a larger latitudinal distance from the geomagnetic equator. All results, obtained by the proposed method, indicate that the stratification phenomenon is more complex than what has previously been found. The proposed method thus is an effective one, which can also be used on similar studies of comparing fluctuated data.