skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Search for: All records

Creators/Authors contains: "Heale, Chris"

Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

  1. Abstract We use the TIEGCM‐NG nudged by MAGIC gravity waves to study the impacts of a severe thunderstorm system, with a hundred tornado touchdowns, on the ionospheric and thermospheric disturbances. The generated waves induce a distinct concentric ring pattern on GNSS TIDs with horizontal scales of 150–400 km and phase speeds of 150–300 m/s, which is well simulated by the model. The waves show substantial vertical evolution in period, initially dominated by 0.5 hr at 200 km, shifting to 0.25 hr and with more higher‐frequency waves appearing at higher altitudes (∼400 km). The TADs reach amplitudes of 100 m/s, 60 m/s, 80 K, and 10% in horizontal winds, vertical wind, temperature, and relative neutral density, respectively. Significantly perturbations in electron density cause dramatic changes in its nighttime structure around 200 km and near the EIA crest. The concentric TIDs are also simulated in ion drifts and mapped from the Tornado region to the conjugate hemisphere likely due to neutral wind‐induced electric field perturbations. The waves manage to impact the ionosphere at altitudes of ICON and COSMIC‐2, which pass through the region of interest on a total of 8 separate orbits. In situ ion density observations from these spacecrafts reveal periodic fluctuations that frequently show good agreement with the TIEGCM‐NG simulation. The O+fraction observations from ICON indicate that the density fluctuations are the result of vertical transport of the ions in this region, which could result from either direct forcing by neutral winds or electrodynamic coupling. 
    more » « less
    Free, publicly-accessible full text available December 1, 2025