Response of the Earth’s equatorial ionosphere during the severe G4-class geomagnetic storm of 8th September 2017

Abstract

Equatorial and low latitude ionospheric response of the 8th September 2017 severe G4-class geomagnetic storm is investigated using the total electron content (TEC) data from a longitudinal chain of global positioning system (GPS) receivers over Asian, African and American sectors. During the main phase, a positive storm effect is observed over Asian sector, a complete negative storm effect over African sector and both are observed over American sector. A sharp increase in peak TEC is observed over the complete longitudinal chain during the recovery phase. The results show the decisive contribution of prompt penetration electric fields (PPEFs) and disturbance dynamo electric fields (DDEFs), storm time disturbed meridional (equatorward) wind as well as the neutral compositional changes over equatorial and low latitudes in the observed ionospheric storm effects.