Global ionospheric TEC response to a strong magnetic storm

Abstract

The global characteristics of the ionospheric storm and irregularities as well as propagation of TEC (total electron content) disturbances during the strong magnetic storm occurring in November 2004 were investigated by using the data of the IGS network. For the response of the global ionospheric TEC to this strong magnetic storm, the following features are noticeable: 1) the maximum of the ionospheric storm phase occurred around the main phase maximum of the magnetic storm; 2) the TEC response in equatorial and low latitudes was more remarkable than that in mid-high latitudes; 3) as a whole, the storm phase in the northern hemisphere was mainly positive, and it was negative in the southern hemisphere; 4) during the whole magnetic storm from November 7 to 11, the locations where the maxima of the positive and negative ionospheric storm phases occurred were nearly invariant to the Sun at low and equatorial latitudes, i.e. the 24-h recurrence. Analyzing results of TEC rate and its standard deviation showed that the ionospheric irregularities and disturbances in the global mainly occurred around the main phase maximum of the storm, and they distributed in a large longitudinal region for both day and night in mid-high latitudes and they generated and developed only after the sunset, and lasted out to the midnight in equatorial and low latitudes. The disturbance propagation parameters were also estimated by using the wavelet reconstruction and cross-correlation technologies for a set of spaced stations in the Northern America.