On the Correlation of the Midlatitude Lower Ionosphere with Solar and Meteorological Parameters during the MAP/WINE Winter of 1983/1984

Abstract

The behaviour of the midlatitude lower ionosphere (Central Europe, USSR, Spain) is studied for the winter of 1983/84. The lower ionosphere is found to be governed by neutral atmosphere variability. The ionospheric data are divided into two groups according to altitude (not latitude or longitude). The principal component analysis method shows that the opposite response to the meteor zone (∼ 95 km) meridional and partly also zonal wind variability appears to be responsible for this division. There is a negative correlation of ionospheric data and zonal wind (∼ 95 km) with the 10 hPa temperature, stronger for the North Pole than for the quasi-local Berlin temperature. This seems to be caused mainly by longer-term trends, i.e., by the fact that the polar 10 hPa temperature reflects well the global behaviour of polar vortex.