Manifestation of Strong Geomagnetic Storms in the Ionosphere above Europe

Abstract

AbstractThe solar wind effects on Earth environment are studied for their basic science value as well as for their crucial practical impact on human technological systems. Increased dissipation of solar wind energy in the near-Earth environment is a significant source of consequent perturbations in the upper atmosphere and ionosphere. This chapter addresses the ionospheric manifestation of geomagnetic storms induced by solar wind. Changes in the electron density distribution at the ionospheric F region heights above Europe during strong-to-severe geomagnetic storms, which occurred over present solar cycle, have been analysed. As for the seasonal preference, during storm main phase only negative phases dominate in summer, while during winter occurrence of both negative and positive phases is probable. Enhancements of electron density have been sometimes observed several hours before the onset of geomagnetic storm. Also the existence of few-hours-long periods during storm main phase, when the deviation of the electron density from median was insignificant, has been observed. Independent of the sign of the storm effect on F2 region ionisation, the effect on electron density at the F1 region heights at European higher middle latitudes has been found negative, if any at all. The F1 region response to magnetic disturbances also shows substantial summer/winter asymmetry. The stormy high latitude F region is most variable compared with middle and lower middle latitudes, being strongly influenced by magnetospheric processes, in particular, strong electric fields, which are usually present during geomagnetic storms. Several specific features of the storm-time high latitude ionosphere will briefly be mentioned including behaviour of ionospheric scintillations. The comparative analysis illustrates that the improved IRI-2001 model with the activated STORM option provides better description of the ionisation distribution above Europe under geomagnetic storm conditions. Nevertheless, our results show that model not always estimates correctly the storm phase and the magnitude of the effects on F region electron densityionospheregeomagnetic stormspace weather