STUDY OF ANTARCTIC-SOUTH AMERICA CONNECTIVITY FROM IONOSPHERIC RADIO SOUNDINGS

Abstract

Multi-instrument probing of the ionosphere at high latitudes is of great interest to improve our understanding of it, and because the processes originated in the interplanetary space print your signatures there. Nowadays, the ionosphere has been probed by many different radio techniques, from geodetic observations (GPS), passing by radar measurements up to the analysis of very low frequency (VLF) wave paths. The simultaneous and integrated observations have been provided the ability to study the ionosphere from high in the F-region to bottom of the D-layer, and also the coupling processes from the magnetosphere to the neutral atmosphere. The study of the Antarctic-South America connectivity is important to understand/characterize how the polar atmospheric variations can affect the lower latitudes, in which context, the instrument networks are essential. This paper presents the radio techniques that have been used at Comandante Ferraz Brazilian Station in Antarctica for probing the ionosphere, as well the instrumentation characteristics and in which network it is integrated. It also provides some recent scientific results obtained from the ionospheric soundings.