High-midlatitude ionosphere response to major stratospheric warming

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This study investigates the impact of dynamical processes in the neutral atmosphere on the high-midlatitude ionosphere during two sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) events. For this purpose, the reanalysis meteorological data of the National Centers for Environmental Prediction/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCEP/NCAR) and UK Met Office (UKMO) were used in addition to that from the high-midlatitude chain of Russian ionosonde stations. The results show that the ionospheric response to the SSW events at high-midlatitudes depends on the position of the ionosonde stations relative to the stratospheric circulation pattern. Two well-pronounced effects were detected in this study. The first effect, observed in January 2009, was a negative effect in critical frequency (f o F2) and a positive effect in F2 layer maximum (h m F2) above the border of a stratospheric cyclone and an anticyclone with northward flow direction. During a 6-day period, the ionosphere exhibited a sharply inhomogeneous longitudinal structure when ionosondes, displaced at a longitude of approximately 20°, showed differences of approximately 1 MHz in f o F2 and more than 50 km in h m F2. The second feature, which was clearly observed in January 2013, implied a positive effect in f o F2 up to approximately 2.5 MHz and a negative effect in h m F2 at approximately 10 km above the center of the stratospheric cyclone. We conclude that these effects were caused by upward transport of molecular gas to the lower thermosphere for the first case and a pulldown forcing of molecular species above the low-pressure zone inside the cyclone for the second case. Changes in the O + /N 2 ratio in the lower thermosphere altered the O + recombination rate and the corresponding variations of ionosphere parameters.

Boris G Shpynev, Vladimir I Kurkin, Konstantin G Ratovsky, Marina A Chernigovskaya, Anastasiya Yu Belinskaya, Svetlana A Grigorieva, Alexander E Stepanov, Vasily V Bychkov, Dora Pancheva, and Plamen Mukhtarov High-midlatitude ionosphere response to major stratospheric warming // Earth, Planets and Space 2015, 67:18  doi:10.1186/s40623-015-0187-1