Towards a Predictive Model of Sporadic E using Planetary Wave Signatures Quantified with the N Dimensional Lomb Scargle Peridogram

Sporadic E is a strong plasma density enhancement in the E region of the ionosphere that can severely degrade the performance of Over The Horizon (OTH) radar and other High Frequency (HF) technologies.Sporadic E is known to vary on tidal (1,2,3, times per day) as well as planetary wave (2 -30 day periods) timescales.We use a novel dataset and method to study the connections between planetary waves and sporadic E, and show progress towards a rudimentary predictor.The dataset consists of retrieved sporadic E parameters (foEs, hmEs) from Radio Occultation (RO) measurements.The method is the N-Dimensional Lomb-Scargle Periodogram (ND LSP) which allows planetary waves and tides to be quantified without the need for averaging or interpolation of the raw data.This is especially valuable for the irregular temporal and spatial sampling characteristic of RO measurements.This technique shows expected seasonal trends and evidence of non-linear interactions between tides and planetary waves.