Data · dataset · 2026
Seasonal and solar activity variations of the Weddell Sea Anomaly observed in the TOPEX total electron content measurements
Listed in National Center for Atmospheric Research
The Weddell Sea Anomaly (WSA) in the ionosphere is characterized by higher plasma densities at night than during the day in the region near the Weddell Sea.
Description
According to previous studies on the WSA, it is known to occur mostly in southern summer and has not been reported in other seasons. We have utilized more than 13 years of TOPEX total electron content (TEC) measurements in order to study how the WSA varies with seasons and how it changes with solar activity.
The TOPEX TEC data have been extensively utilized for climatological studies of the ionosphere because of their excellent spatial and temporal coverage. We investigate the seasonal and solar activity variations of the WSA using four seasonal cases (March equinox, June solstice, September equinox, and December solstice) and two solar activity conditions (F10.7 120 for solar maximum conditions) for geomagnetically quiet periods.
Read the rest (2 more)
Our analysis shows that (1) the WSA occurs only in the southern summer hemisphere for low F10.7, as in previous studies, but (2) the WSA occurs in all seasons except for winter when F10.7 is high; it is most prominent during the December solstice (southern summer) and still strong during both equinoxes. The TOPEX TEC maps in the midlatitude and high-latitude ionosphere display significant global longitudinal variations for a given local time in the Southern Hemisphere, which varies with season and solar activity.
The observed WSA appears to be an extreme manifestation of the longitudinal variations.
Links
Get the data
- Publisher page n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7vm4d85 ↗
documentation · download · from data ucar edu
Where it is published
- data.ucar.edu /dataset/seasonal-and-solar-activity-variations-of-the-weddell-… ↗
National Center for Atmospheric Research dataset page
landing page · from data ucar edu
Catalogue records · 1
- CKAN API data.ucar.edu/api/3/action/package_show?id=572b8854-114b-48f8-b7bb-e9081dc70… ↗
metadata API · from data ucar edu
Topics
- From keywords
- Earth & Environmental Science · Ocean & Atmospheric Science
- Inferred from text
- Longitudinal study 65%
Provenance · 1 source records, 8 field assertions
| Source | Key | Last seen | Raw |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Center for Atmospheric Research | 572b8854-114b-48f8-b7bb-e9081dc70c85 | 11 d ago | JSON v1 |
| Field | Assertion | Extractor | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| concepts[field].local:field:earth-environmental | mapping · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[field].local:field:ocean-atmospheric | mapping · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| concepts[method].local:method:longitudinal-study | enrichment · data ucar edu | keyword-concept-rules@1.0.0 | title+description (65%) |
| created_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| description | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | /notes |
| publication_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | |
| title | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 | /title |
| updated_date | source · data ucar edu | connector:data_ucar_edu@1.0.0 |