A NEW MERIDIONAL MAGNETOMETER ARRAY IN MIDDLE-SOUTH EUROPE FOR MONITORING DYNAMIC PROCESSES IN THE COUPLED SYSTEM PLASMASPHERE-IONOSPHERE

摘要

We describe a new latitudinal magnetometer array which has been recently installed in Middle-South Europe. The purpose of this array is to investigate dynamic processes occurring in the inner magnetosphere. One possibility offered by the array is to determine low-latitude geomagnetic field line eigenfrequencies to monitor spatial and temporal variations of the plasma mass density in the plasmasphere and ionosphere. We present the results for a representative day in terms of whole-day dynamic cross-phase and cross-power spectra between different station pairs. A clear early morning decrease of the resonant frequency is observed which reflects the dynamic ion mass loading effect which takes place in the ionosphere at sunrise.