AbstractObservation‐based simulations of the ionosphere were performed with the NRLMSISE‐00 model for six locations around the globe during 1–9 February 2022, which includes the so‐called Starlink Storm. Unlike other studies, we focused on the magnetically quiet days around the storm. Unexpectedly, the observed values of the F2‐layer peak density were ∼50% larger than the simulated values. We show that this implies that the daytime O density in the thermosphere was systematically ∼30% larger than the NRLMSISE‐00 predicts. Further investigation shows that this discrepancy is not an exclusive feature of the period around the Starlink Storm and a similar problem happens for some periods for different years. It is unclear if the reason is an actual increase of the O density or its underestimation by the model. Resolving this problem is critical for providing accurate predictions of the atmosphere to avoid the degradation of normal operation or even loss of space assets.

This study explores the impact of the exosphere hydrogen (H) density on the ionosphere-plasmasphere system using a model whose key inputs are constrained by ionosphere observations at both ends of the magnetic field line with an L-value of 1.75 in the American longitudinal sector during a period with low solar and magnetic activities. This study is the first to be validated by ground-based and satellite data in the plasmasphere and both hemispheres. The main finding is that the entire ionosphere-plasmasphere system is very sensitive to the neutral hydrogen density in the lower exosphere. It was found that an increase in the H density by a factor of 2.75 from the commonly accepted values was necessary to bring the simulated plasma density into satisfactory agreement with Arase satellite measurements in the plasmasphere and also with DMSP satellite measurements in the topside ionospheres of the northern and southern hemispheres. A factor of 2.75 increase in the H density increases the simulated plasma density in the afternoon plasmasphere up to ∼80% and in the nighttime topside ionosphere up to ∼100%. These results indicate prominently that using the commonly accepted empirical model of the H density causes unacceptable errors in the simulated plasma density of the near-Earth plasma shells. We alert the space science community of this problem.

This paper presents a personal account of developments in the solution of two related problems that limited the accuracy of ionosphere calculations in the 1980s. The first problem concerns the model-data discrepancies in the ionosphere photoelectron flux spectrum. Early comparisons between measured and modeled data revealed discrepancies in magnitude and shape. A lateral thinking approach revealed that there were problems with two key photoelectron model inputs: namely, the electron impact cross-sections and the solar extreme ultraviolet irradiance. This work led to the development of a widely used EUVAC solar irradiance model for ionosphere electron density calculations. The second problem relates to the neutral winds that are crucial for modeling variations in the ionosphere ion and electron densities. There is a lack of thermosphere neutral wind data because they are difficult to measure. The winds determine the altitude at which the electron density peaks. An accurate solution to this problem was the development of an algorithm that assimilates the altitude of the peak electron density into ionosphere models. This technique works because the altitude of the peak density is very sensitive to variations in the neutral wind.

A comprehensive study of the response of the ionosphere-plasmasphere system at mid-latitudes to weak (Ds(tmin) > -50 nT) magnetic storms is presented. For the first time, it is shown that weak magnetic disturbances can lead to significant modulation of ionosphere-plasmasphere H+ ion fluxes. It is found that this modulation is caused by the enhancements/reductions of the topside O+ ion density, which is induced by F2-layer peak height rise and fall during the storms. The F2-layer motion is caused by thermospheric wind changes and by a penetration electric field. Both drivers are closely related to the changes in the B-z component of interplanetary magnetic field. The most prominent manifestation of the H+ ion flux modulation is strong changes in H+ ion fraction in the topside ionosphere. This study also indicates that the NRLMSISE-00 model provides the correct relative changes of neutral H density during weak magnetic storms and also that there is a compelling need to include geomagnetic activity indices, in addition to solar activity (F-10.7), as input parameters to empirical topside ionosphere models.

This paper investigates and quantifies the longitudinal, solar cyclical, and diurnal variation of the ionosphere peak electron density observed by six ionosondes located between 18 and 151°E near 60°N. Embedded within this region is the Bering Sea anomaly (BSA) where the midnight peak electron density exceeds the midday peak electron density in summer. The BSA is a region West of Alaska extending from approximately 100° to 200° east geographic longitude and 55° to 70° north geographic latitude at its widest. By comparing a physical model with ionosonde data from the 1970s and 1980s, it is found that longitudinal changes in the neutral winds and neutral densities are the most likely explanation for the electron density variation between 18 and 151°E near 60°N. Longitudinal differences in magnetic declination and inclination are small and have a negligible effect on the electron density behavior. Our definition of and the behavior of the BSA are analogous to the Weddell Sea anomaly (WSA), a region in the Southern Hemisphere where the midnight peak electron density also exceeds the midday peak electron density in summer. Although the overall BSA electron density is a factor of 2 smaller than that in the WSA, the two anomalies have similar midnight to midday electron density ratios. It is found that the BSA gets stronger with increasing solar activity, while the WSA gets weaker. It is also demonstrated that including vibrationally excited N2 in an ionosphere model is crucial for producing the observed midnight to midday electron density ratios.

AbstractThis paper presents a comparison of modeled and measured electron densities for the 21 August 2017 solar eclipse across the USA. The location of the instrument was (43.81°N, 247.32°E) where the maximum obscuration of 99.6% occurred at 17.53 hr UT on 21 August. The solar apparent time was 9.96 hr, and the duration of the eclipse was 2.7 hr. It was found that if it is assumed that there are no chromosphere emissions at totality, ~30% coronal emission remaining at totality gave the best fit to the electron density variation at 150 km. The 30% coronal emission estimate has uncertainties associated with respect to uncertainties in the solar spectrum, the measured electron density, and the amount of chromosphere emissions remaining at totality. The agreement between the modeled and measured electron densities is excellent at 150 km with the assumed 30% coronal emission at totality. At other altitudes, the agreement is very good, but the altitude profile would be improved if the model peak electron density (NmF2) decayed more slowly to better match the data. The minimum NmF2 in the model occurs ~10 min after totality when it decreases to 0.55 from its noneclipse value. The minimum of the NmF2 data occurs between 6 and 10 min after totality but is ~15% larger. The total electron content decreases to 0.65 of its preeclipse value. These relative changes agree well with those predicted by others prior to the eclipse.

Abstract This paper reports the results of ionosphere and plasmasphere observations with the Kharkiv incoherent scatter radar and ionosonde, Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, and Arase (ERG) satellites and simulations with field line interhemispheric plasma model during the equinoxes and solstices of solar minimum 24. The results reveal the need to increase NRLMSISE‐00 thermospheric hydrogen density by a factor of ~2. For the first time, it is shown that the measured plasmaspheric density can be reproduced with doubled NRLMSISE‐00 hydrogen density only. A factor of ~2 decrease of plasmaspheric density in deep inner magnetosphere (L ≈ 2.1) caused by very weak magnetic disturbance (Dst > −22 nT) of 24 December 2017 was observed in the morning of 25 December 2017. During the next night, prominent effects of partially depleted flux tube were observed in the topside ionosphere (~50% reduced H+ ion density) and at the F2‐layer peak (~50% decreased electron density). The likely physical mechanisms are discussed.

This paper investigates and quantifies the causes of the Weddell Sea Anomaly (WSA), a region near the tip of South America extending from approximately 30 degrees to 120 degrees W geographic longitude and 50 degrees to 75 degrees S geographic latitude at solar minimum between 2007 and 2010. This region is unusual because the midnight peak electron density exceeds the midday peak electron density in summer. This study is far more quantitative than previous studies because, unlike other models, it assimilates selected data parameters to constrain a physical model in order to investigate other aspects of the data. It is shown that the commonly accepted explanation that the WSA is related to the magnetic field declination and inclination effects on the neutral wind does not explain the longitudinal variation of the electron density. Rather, longitudinal changes in the neutral winds and neutral densities are the most likely explanation for the WSA. These longitudinal wind and density changes are attributed to the varying latitudinal distance from the auroral zone energy input. No contributions from the plasmasphere or other sources are required. Furthermore, it is shown that a widely used empirical thermosphere density model overestimates the longitudinal changes in the WSA region. Plain Language Summary This paper investigates and quantifies the causes of the Weddell Sea Anomaly (WSA), a region near the tip of South America extending from approximately 30 degrees to 120 degrees W geographic longitude and 50 degrees to 75 degrees S geographic latitude at solar minimum between 2007 and 2010. This region is unusual because the midnight peak electron density exceeds the midday peak electron density in summer. This study is far more quantitative than previous studies because, unlike other models, it assimilates selected data parameters to constrain a physical model in order to investigate other aspects of the data. It is shown that the commonly accepted explanation that the WSA is related to the magnetic field declination and inclination effects on the neutral wind does not explain the longitudinal variation of the electron density. Rather, longitudinal changes in the neutral winds and neutral densities are the most likely explanation for the WSA. These longitudinal wind and density changes are attributed to the varying latitudinal distance from the auroral zone energy input. No contributions from the plasmasphere or other sources are required. Furthermore, it is shown that a widely used empirical thermosphere density model overestimates the longitudinal changes in the WSA region.

This study investigates the causes of nighttime enhancements in ionospheric density that are observed in winter by the incoherent scatter radar at Kharkiv, Ukraine. Calculations with a comprehensive physical model reveal that large downward ion fluxes from the plasmasphere are the main cause of the enhancements. These large fluxes are enabled by large upward H + fluxes into the plasmasphere from the conjugate summer hemisphere during the daytime. The nighttime downward H + flux at Kharkiv is sensitive to the thermosphere model H density, which had to be increased by factors of 2 to 3 to obtain model‐data agreement for the topside H + density. Other studies support the need for increasing the thermosphere model H density for all seasons at solar minimum. It was found that neutral winds are less effective than plasmaspheric fluxes for maintaining the nighttime ionosphere. This is partly because increased equatorward winds simultaneously oppose the downward H + flux. The model calculations also reveal the need for a modest additional heat flow from the plasmasphere in the afternoon. This source could be the quiet time ring current.

The distinctive spatial patterns of the ionosphere's total electron content (TEC) response to solar, seasonal, diurnal, and geomagnetic influences are determined across the globe using a new statistical model constructed from 2-hourly TEC observations from 1998 to 2015. The model combines representations of the physical solar EUV photon and geomagnetic activity drivers with solar-modulated sinusoidal parameterizations of four seasonal cycles and solar-modulated and seasonally modulated parameterizations of three diurnal cycles. The average absolute residual of the data-model differences is 2.1 total electron content unit, 1 TECU = 10(16) el m(-2) (TECU) (9%) and the root-mean-square error is 3.5 TECU (15%). Solar and geomagnetic variability, the semiannual oscillation and the diurnal and semidiurnal oscillations all impact TEC most at low magnetic latitudes where TEC itself maximizes, with differing degrees of longitudinal inhomogeneity. In contrast, the annual oscillation manifests primarily in the Southern Hemisphere with maximum amplitude over midlatitude South America, extending to higher southern latitudes in the vicinity of the Weddell Sea. Nighttime TEC levels in the vicinity of the Weddell Sea exceed daytime levels every year in Southern Hemisphere summer as a consequence of the modulation of the diurnal oscillations by the seasonal oscillations. The anomaly, which is present at all phases of the solar cycle, commences sooner and ends later under solar minimum conditions. The model minus data residuals maximize at tropical magnetic latitudes in four geographical regions similar to the ionosphere pattern generated by lower atmospheric meteorology. Enhanced residuals at northern midlatitudes during winter are consistent with an influence of atmospheric gravity waves.

This research investigates anomalous nighttime ion density behaviour over the Kharkiv, Ukraine incoherent scatter radar (49.6° N, 36.3° E, 45.3° inv) during the equinoxes of 2006–2010. The observations show that the altitude of the transition from O+ to lighter ions was much lower than empirical and physical models predict. The standard physical model produces very good agreement for the O+ densities but underestimates the H+ densities by a factor of 2 in March 2006 and a factor of 3 in March 2009. The anomalously low transition height is a result of similar lowering of the ionospheric peak height and also of significantly increased H+ density. The lower ionospheric peak height may be caused by weaker nighttime neutral winds. The calculations indicate that the higher measured topside ionosphere H+ densities are most likely due to higher neutral hydrogen densities. Both factors could be the result of weaker than usual magnetic activity, which would reduce the energy input to high latitudes. Prolonged low activity periods could cause a global redistribution of hydrogen and also allow more neutral hydrogen to settle down from the exosphere into the mid-latitude ionosphere. The finding of the need for higher H densities agrees well with recent H-alpha airglow measurements and it is important for accurate modelling of plasmasphere refilling rates and night-time NmF2 values.

This paper investigates the causes of the sudden descent (midnight collapse) of the ionosphere at Townsville, Australia, during the equinox periods of years between 1970 and 1980. The collapse of hmF2 at midnight is found to occur on 89% of the 330 equinox nights that are investigated, and the mean magnitude of the midnight collapse is 84 km in the March equinox periods and 99 km in the September equinox periods. Observations of hmF2 are used to determine equivalent meridional neutral winds using a first principles physics model. Harmonic analysis of these derived winds reveals the existence of significant diurnal (24 h), semidiurnal (12 h), and terdiurnal (8 h) tidal components. The contribution of wind harmonics to the midnight collapse is determined by band‐pass filtering the winds to only allow certain tides and then modeling their effect on hmF2 near midnight. The results indicate that the diurnal, semidiurnal, and terdiurnal components of the meridional neutral wind all play a significant role at various times, but the effect of the 6 h wind component is minimal. The spectral analysis also reveals that the terdiurnal wind component becomes dominant during solar maximum. Electric fields do not appear to be responsible for the midnight hmF2 collapse because it is seldom seen at the near‐conjugate station of Akita, Japan.

Electron conic distributions have angular distributions with peak fluxes well separated from the field aligned-direction. They have previously been reported at Earth on auroral field lines and at the Moon and Mars on closed crustal magnetic field lines. Here we report observations of electron conics at Earth on closed magnetic field lines well removed from the aurora. We show how these distributions could be produced without plasma wave interactions when magnetic field lines are illuminated by solar ionizing radiation at relatively high altitudes in the ionosphere. Examination of previous reports of electron conic distributions observed in planetary atmospheres show that there are a variety of physical mechanisms that can lead to their formation, not all of which require wave-particle interactions. (C) 2015 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Orbiting Geophysical Observatory 5 (OGO 5) magnetospheric ion-composition data (H+, He+ and O+) have been retrieved from old magnetic tapes archived at the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC). The highly compressed binary format was converted into a user-friendly ASCII format and these data have been made available online. We have inspected the reliability and consistency of this data set. Comparisons with the IRI-2012 climatological model and the FLIP theoretical model revealed a shift of absolute and relative ion densities with time. Here we have developed a correction procedure for the individual H+, He+ and O+ ion density measurements. We investigated plasmapause locations based on the density gradients in H+, and He+. The correlation coefficient between these locations was determined to be ~0.886 with the typical difference in L about 0.1. The electron density at the He+ plasmapause location based on the corrected data for all cases was >100cm−3.

The International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) project was established jointly by the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and the International Union of Radio Science (URSI) in the late sixties with the goal to develop an international standard for the specification of plasma parameters in the Earth's ionosphere. COSPAR needed such a specification for the evaluation of environmental effects on spacecraft and experiments in space, and URSI for radiowave propagation studies and applications. At the request of COSPAR and URSI, IRI was developed as a data-based model to avoid the uncertainty of theory-based models which are only as good as the evolving theoretical understanding. Being based on most of the available and reliable observations of the ionospheric plasma from the ground and from space, IRI describes monthly averages of electron density, electron temperature, ion temperature, ion composition, and several additional parameters in the altitude range from 60 km to 2000 km. A working group of about 50 international ionospheric experts is in charge of developing and improving the IRI model. Over time as new data became available and new modeling techniques emerged, steadily improved editions of the IRI model have been published. This paper gives a brief history of the IRI project and describes the latest version of the model, IRI-2012. It also briefly discusses efforts to develop a real-time IRI model. The IRI homepage is at http://IRImodel.org.