Ionospheric and Magnetic Signatures of Space Weather Events at Middle and Low Latitudes: Experimental Studies and Modelling

Dear Colleagues,

Since 1990, the discipline of space weather has vigorously developed. This new discipline aims to know the impact of solar events on the near-Earth environment and the effects of these events on human activity and technologies.

Under the aegis of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), a program to develop Space Sciences in developing countries was initiated in 1991. Several large scientific programs, such as IEEY (International Equatorial Electrojet Year), IHY (International Heliophysical Year), and ISWI (International Space Weather Initiative), have made it possible to install instruments at middle and low latitudes, including networks of GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) stations, magnetometers and other sensors. GNSS networks make it possible to know how solar events such as solar flares, CMEs (corona mass ejections), or fast winds flowing from solar coronal holes disrupt the path of transmission waves from the satellites to the Earth. The main source of these disturbances is the ionosphere. On the other side, magnetometers make it possible to understand the disturbances of the Earth’s magnetic field by the same solar events.

In the context of space weather, it is important to understand the physical mechanisms acting at the level of the Sun in the interplanetary environment, as well as the Earth’s thermosphere and the ionosphere. This Special Issue will therefore include articles reviewing mechanisms that have been known for several decades, as well as new original findings.

In the equatorial zone, certain particular geophysical phenomena exist, such as the equatorial fountain, the PRE (pre-reversal enhancement of the eastward electric field), and the equatorial electrojet (EEJ). This Special Issue will therefore include articles concerning the perturbations generated by solar disturbances on these equatorial parameters through the electrodynamic coupling between high and low latitudes.

Special attention will be given to the use of GNSS data to characterize the scintillations of the electromagnetic signal due to plasma irregularities and equatorial plasma bubbles (EPB), which are particularly important in the equatorial zone.

Prof. Dr. Christine Amory-Mazaudier
Guest Editor

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