Investigations of equatorial plasma bubbles as observed in the OI 630 nm nightglow emissions over off-equatorial and low-latitudinal locations over Indian longitudes

Abstract

Equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs), generated over the dip-equator during the sunset time, get mapped over to the low-latitudes through the geomagnetic field lines and contribute to structures of different scales in the nighttime thermosphere-ionosphere system. In the present study, the EPBs are observed in the OI 630 nm nightglow emissions over Mt. Abu and Kolhapur using a High Throughput Imaging Echelle spectrograph (HiTIES) and All-Sky Imager (ASI), respectively. Similar periodicities obtained in these measurements consistently corroborate the presence of the EPBs at both these locations. The strength of the Pre-Reversal Enhancement (PRE) in the zonal electric field has been investigated using the ionosonde data over Trivandrum, a dip-equatorial location. The strength of PRE decides the latitudinal extent of the EPBs. The eastward movement of the EPBs has been estimated to be in the range of 190-90 ms-1, decreasing in magnitude from post-sunset to midnight. The wave number analysis carried out using the observed OI 630 nm emissions in the zonal direction has resulted in a contrasting behaviour during the presence/absence of the EPBs. Based on the analysis of around 1300 images of data, it is revealed that the scale sizes in the range of 250-300 km are omnipresent, whereas, shorter scale sizes (50-250 km) are present only during the presence of EPBs. It is inferred that these shorter scale size gravity waves played a significant role in the seeding the perturbation of the EPBs.