Radar and Airglow Studies of F-Region composition and Dynamics at low latitudes

This thesis presents a series of studies investigating the composition and dynamics of the low latitude F-region ionosphere using airglow imagers and the Arecibo and Jicamarca incoherent scatter radars (ISRs), along with supporting instrumentation. Some dynamical aspects of the low latitude ionosphere are investigated. The effects of a large-scale traveling ionospheric disturbance (TID) are studied. The TID characteristics are consistent with an atmospheric disturbance caused by high latitude Lorentz forcing associated with periodic substorms. Plasmaspheric coupling is necessary to explain the observed electron densities and airglow intensities.