Statistical Analysis of the Ionospheric Response to Geomagnetic Storms Based on the Data from Global Ionospheric Maps
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ICAL PHYSICS OF ATMOSPHERIC PHENOMENA Dedicated to E. L. Afraimovich and Yu. N. Koren’kov, two eminent and optimistic scientists
Statistical Analysis of the Ionospheric Response to Geomagnetic Storms Based on the Data from Global Ionospheric Maps K. G. Ratovskya, *, M. V. Klimenkob, Yu. V. Yasyukevicha, A. M. Vesnina, and V. V. Klimenkob aInstitute b
of Solar and Terrestrial Physics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences, Irkutsk, Russia West Department Pushkov Institute of Terrestrial Magnetism, Ionosphere, and Radio Wave Propagation, Russian Academy of Sciences, Kaliningrad, Russia *e-mail: [email protected] Received May 7, 2020; revised May 7, 2020; accepted May 20, 2020
Abstract—This study is aimed at statistically analyzing the ionospheric response to geomagnetic storms based on the data from the global ionospheric maps (GIMs). The global electron content and average zonal values of the total electron content for five latitudinal zones (equatorial zone, mid-latitude zones of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and high-latitude zones of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres) are selected as the ionospheric characteristics that are calculated from the global characteristics by using GIMs. The results of the statistical analysis are discussed in terms of the concept of an ionospheric/thermospheric storm, within which ionospheric disturbances are a consequence of the changes in the thermospheric parameters (neutral composition of the thermosphere and wind). The contradictions in the concept of a thermospheric/ionospheric storm are discussed from the standpoint of the methodological aspects of the statistical analysis and effects that are beyond this concept. Keywords: statistical analysis, ionosphere, geomagnetic storm, global ionospheric maps DOI: 10.1134/S1990793120050243
INTRODUCTION The daytime values of the electron density in the Earth’s ionosphere are related to changes in the ionization rate and increase with the increase in solar activity [1, 2]; moreover, they increase in winter much more than in summer [3]. In addition, the Earth’s ionosphere is influenced by processes in the magnetosphere (through particle precipitation, Joule heating, magnetospheric/ionospheric currents, and penetration of an electric field of magnetospheric origin) [2, 4–6] and underlying atmosphere (through tidal, planetary, and internal gravity waves) [7–12]. In this study, the studies of the ionospheric response to geomagnetic storms, which have been started in [13], are continued based on the statistical analysis. The latter is an implementation of the method of superposed epochs, which consists in averaging the ionospheric responses relative to the key dates that characterize a certain phase of a geomagnetic storm (the analysis procedure is described in detail in Section 1). The mean value of the ionospheric response is interpreted as a deterministic component due to the effect of the geomagnetic storm itself. The scatter of the response values relative to the mean value, which is characterized by the standard de
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