Ionospheric Disturbances and Space Weather

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Upper Atmosphere".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 June 2025 | Viewed by 864

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Institute of Space Weather, School of Atmospheric Physics, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing 210044, China
Interests: space weather forecast; space weather numerical simulation; solar wind–magnetosphere–ionosphere–upper atmosphere coupling
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue aims to comprehensively explore ionospheric disturbances at various scales and complex responses to space weather. As advancements in technology and an increased reliance on satellite communications and navigation systems emerge, understanding and forecasting these disturbances and space weather events has become crucial for mitigating their impacts on modern infrastructure and safety.

We welcome submissions that encompass a wide range of topics including, but not limited to, the mechanisms driving ionospheric disturbances, their correlation with space weather events such as solar flares, geomagnetic storms, sudden stratospheric warming, and other events, and the resulting effects on radio wave propagation and satellite operations. We welcome contributions that present observational studies, theoretical modeling, and the real-time forecasting of space weather and its implications for the ionosphere.

In addition, we encouarage the submission of interdisciplinary research that combines insights from magnetospheric physics, atmospheric science, and other fields; this is in order to enhance our understanding of ionospheric disturbances. By assembling a diverse range of perspectives and methodologies, this Special Issue will serve as a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers, and the technological community, fostering further collaboration in this critical area of study.

Prof. Dr. Jianyong Lu
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • space weather
  • ionosphere
  • upper atmosphere

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

25 pages, 10436 KiB  
Article
Effects of the Geomagnetic Superstorms of 10–11 May 2024 and 7–11 October 2024 on the Ionosphere and Plasmasphere
by Viviane Pierrard, Tobias G. W. Verhulst, Jean-Marie Chevalier, Nicolas Bergeot and Alexandre Winant
Atmosphere 2025, 16(3), 299; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos16030299 - 4 Mar 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 594
Abstract
On 10 May 2024 at 17 h:07 UTC, the simultaneous arrival of several solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) generated the strongest geomagnetic storm of the last twenty years, with a minimum Dst = −412 nT, usually referred to as the Mother’s Day event. [...] Read more.
On 10 May 2024 at 17 h:07 UTC, the simultaneous arrival of several solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs) generated the strongest geomagnetic storm of the last twenty years, with a minimum Dst = −412 nT, usually referred to as the Mother’s Day event. On 10 October 2024, the second strongest event of solar cycle 25 appeared with a Dst = −335 nT, preceded on 8 October by an event with a Dst = −153 nT. In the present work, with measurements of the vertical total electron content and with ionosonde observations from Europe, USA, and South Korea, we show that the ionization of the upper atmosphere shortly increased at the arrival of the CME for these different events, followed by a fast decrease at all latitudes. The ionization remained very low for more than a full day. While the recovery started at the beginning of the second day after the onset for both events in October, the sudden recovery in the middle of the second day on 12 May is much more unusual. The analysis of the observations at different latitudes and longitudes shows that the causes of the ionization variations during the superstorms were mainly due to strong perturbations in the ionospheric F layer, amplified by the plasmasphere’s influence on the vertical total electron content (VTEC). The erosion of the plasmasphere during these two strong events led to a plasmapause located at exceptionally low radial distances smaller than 2 Re (Earth’s radii) in the post-midnight sector and a rotating plume in the afternoon–dusk sector clearly visible in the BSPM plasmasphere model. It took several days after the storms to recover normal ionization rates. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ionospheric Disturbances and Space Weather)
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