Studies of dynamo field structure and related effects: DE satellite project guest investigator program

The establishment of the latitudinal and longitudinal structure of the low latitude dynamo electric (DE) field was initiated using data primarily from the Unified Abstract (UA) files of the Atmosphere Explorer E (AE-E) satellite. Mass plots of the vertical ion drift values were made for 1977, 1978, and 1979. The average diurnal variation of V sub v within 20 degrees of the dip equator is remarkably similar to that obtained at Jicamarca in the same years. The average meridional ion drift velocity vectors, obtained as a function of latitude by combining the average vertical and horizontal (nearly north-south) ion drift values from the AE-E, showed the expected variations with local time and season based on the well known equatorial fountain effect theory. The average diurnal variation of the vertical drift was found for four different ranges of dip latitude for a northern solstice season. The effect of the transequatorial neutral winds was as evident in this plotting format as in the meridional or fountain effect format. Finally, the average vertical drift velocity V sub v, not the east-west electric field E sub ew, was found to be approximately independent of longitude, as expected from the dynamo theory.