Evolution processes of a group of equatorial plasma bubble (EPBs) simultaneously observed by ground-based and satellite measurements in the equatorial region of China

This paper for the first time reports conjugate observations of a group of evolving equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) generated in the longitudinal sector of China on 4/5 November 2013 using simultaneous airglow and Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) observations. The airglow depletion structures seen by two all-sky airglow imagers had the same zonal wavelength as that of the longitudinally periodic electron density depletions observed by the C/NOFS satellite which occurred at almost the same time but at magnetically conjugate latitudes. Data from a VHF radar and a Digisonde were combined to investigate the evolution of the EPB group, including their generation, development, and dissipation. Results indicate that the EPB group developed from the bottomside large-scale wave-like structure (LSWS) at about 195–210 km height with a characteristic zonal wavelength and longitudinal extension of about 450 km and 2250 km, respectively. The EPB group also caused periodic bottomside type spread F associated with the LSWS. We found that the development of the EPB group and their associated spread F could be limited by the equatorward motion of equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) and the southwestward motion of an extremely bright airglow region (SMEBAR). The SMEBAR is a newly discovered structure of plasma density increase but not a plasma blob reported before. Both EIA and SMEBAR could feed high plasma density into an EPB airglow depletion structure that was eventually seen as a bright airglow structure or disappeared. Meanwhile, spread F associated with the EPBs did not evolve from the bottomside type into the strong range type.