Identification

Title

Impact of the lower atmosphere on the ionosphere response to a geomagnetic superstorm

Abstract

Numerical simulations in the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) thermosphere-ionosphere-electrodynamics general circulation model (TIE-GCM) are performed to elucidate the impacts of lower atmosphere forcing on the ionosphere response to a geomagnetic superstorm. In particular, how the ionosphere variability due to the October 2003 Halloween storm would be different if it occurred in January coincident with a major sudden stratosphere warming (SSW) event is investigated. The TIE-GCM simulations reveal that the E× B vertical drift velocity and total electron content (TEC) respond differently to the geomagnetic forcing when the lower atmosphere forcing is representative of SSW conditions compared to climatological lower atmosphere forcing conditions. Notably, the storm time variations in the E× B vertical drift velocity differ when the SSW-induced zonal mean and tidal variability in the lower thermosphere are considered, and this is in part due to effects of the SSW on the equatorial ionosphere being potentially misinterpreted as being of geomagnetic origin. Differences in the TEC response to the geomagnetic storm can be up to 100% (∼30 TEC unit (TECU: 1 TECU = 1016 el m−2)) of the storm-induced TEC change, and the temporal variability of the TEC during the storm recovery phase is considerably different if SSW effects are considered. The results demonstrate that even during periods of extreme geomagnetic forcing, it is important to consider the effects of lower atmosphere forcing on the ionosphere variability.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7tq6361

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-09-28T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact