Space-time structure of ion-cyclotron waves in the topside ionosphere as observed onboard the ST - 5 satellites

Results of observations of ion-cyclotron (IC) waves onboard the ST-5 satellites in the topside ionosphere (heights from a few hundred up to thousands of km) are presented. In this project, three identical micro-satellites were located during three months in 2006 in almost identical orbits with distances between them from first thousands to hundreds of km. All ion-cyclotron wave packets detected by two-three probes were observed at crossing one and the same latitude, which manifests their narrow localization in latitude with a characteristic scale from the first tens to 100 km. In no event IC waves were recorded with comparable amplitudes by all three satellites. At the same time, in the case of ST-5 flight near the ground-based induction magnetometer, a long emission in the same frequency range on the ground corresponded to a burst of IC waves in the topside ionosphere. This can indicate to the fact that an IC instability develops not continuously, but in the pulsing regime with a characteristic time of up to ∼10 min. A change in the rotation direction when a satellite crosses the wave structure is a characteristic feature of the polarization structure of registered transverse waves. The detected effects are discussed from the point of view of the existing models of generation and waveguide propagation of IC waves.