Infinite Horizons: May 20th “The Night-time Low-latitude Ionosphere: an Innovative Research Laboratory to Understand our Near-Earth Space Environment”
Speaker: Prof. Claudia Stolle (Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Germany)
4pm, Beijing time
Watch it on Zoom
We have the pleasure to host the next Infinite Horizons' seminar on May 20th, 2026. Our host will be Prof. Claudia Stolle from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics will talk about The Night-time Low-latitude Ionosphere: an Innovative Research Laboratory to Understand our Near-Earth Space Environment.
Seminar's abstract:
The night-time low-latitude ionosphere is susceptible to irregularities in plasma density which range from meter-scale to several thousands of kilometres extension. These plasma depletions, often called equatorial ionospheric “bubbles”, are a result of plasma instabilities that arise after sunset. The well-developed depletions can have significant implications on trans-ionospheric radio waves. Therefore, their exploration is both an exciting multi-disciplinary research laboratory and a necessity to maintain modern space-based communication systems.
Recent satellite constellation missions have offered unique opportunities to combine high-quality measurements of the magnetic and electric fields, plasma density, and GPS observables within the ionosphere that are simultaneously recorded. This data availability has provided insights into several characteristics of equatorial plasma density depletions, including their global occurrence distribution under different solar conditions, their electrodynamic features, and their severe effects on radio wave signals. This presentation will focus on results achieved by applying Swarm satellite observations, and will also discuss findings in combination with data from other satellite missions as well ground-based observations. The review will be complemented with recent studies and future perspectives in order to improve our understanding and ability to predict the ionospheric irregularities.
Zoom ID: 867 6105 9229
(Our Infinite Horizons seminars are usually host on the third Wednesday of the month)
About the speaker:
