Effects of a “day-time” substorm on the ionosphere and radio propagation

Abstract

Propagation mechanisms of lateral (non-great-circle) signals on a high-latitude HF radio path during magnetospheric substorms that occurred in the day-time have been considered. The path is equipped with oblique ionospheric sounding (OIS) from Murmansk to St. Petersburg. The OIS method gives the possibility to determine propagation modes, MOF (maximum observed frequency) values, signal delays, etc. Data of the CUTLASS radar, the IMAGE magnetometer system, the Finnish riometer chain, and the Tromso ionosonde were also used for the analysis. The main results are the following: (1) the lateral signal propagation takes place, as a rule, if the path midpoint is located near the irregularity region that moves sharply from high to low latitudes. The lateral signal propagation appearing during day-time is a new effect. (2) Formation of dense field-aligned irregularities during a substorm leads to decreasing F2MOF values on radio paths. These results can be useful for problems of radiolocation, HF communications and navigation.