A New Global Climatological Model of the Equatorial Ionospheric Vertical E × B Drift: Integrating Ground-Based Magnetometer, Radar, and Satellite Data Sets

Habarulema J.B.; Okoh D.; Yizengaw E.; Habyarimana V.; Pezzopane M.; Fagundes P.R.; Katamzi-Joseph Z.; Moldwin M.B.; Cesaroni C.; Scipion D. · Earth and Space Science (2026) · DOI: 10.1029/2025ea004622

Resumen

We present a new empirical vertical (Formula presented.) drift model developed using ground-based magnetometer, radar, and satellite data over equatorial latitude regions. We first implement an algorithm relating magnetometer derived equatorial electrojet (EEJ) and vertical ion plasma drift (equivalent to vertical (Formula presented.) drift within magnetic latitudes of (Formula presented.) and altitudes of about 400–550 km) from the Communications and Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite at different longitude sectors. The relationship between EEJ and C/NOFS vertical (Formula presented.) drift is developed separately at different longitudes over the globe at coincidental times when both data sets are available. These relationships are then used to estimate continuous vertical (Formula presented.) drift at each epoch of EEJ observation over the respective longitude sectors during local daytime. The reconstructed vertical (Formula presented.) drift data are combined with global C/NOFS vertical (Formula presented.) drifts and JULIA data set to develop a global vertical (Formula presented.) drift model. Validation using Ion Velocity Meter (IVM) drifts from ICON satellite for January to August 2022 shows that our model improves vertical (Formula presented.) drift global modeling by over 20% compared to the current climatology representation.