Total Electron Content Variations During an HSS/SIR‐Driven Geomagnetic Storm at High and Mid Latitudes
Abstract Two interacting high‐speed solar wind streams (HSSs) and associated stream interaction regions (SIR) caused a moderate geomagnetic storm during 14–20 March 2016. The spatio‐temporal evolution of the total electron content (TEC) during the storm is studied by using Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data. The moderate storm caused significant and long‐lasting changes on TEC within the polar cap (70–90 MLAT), at auroral and sub‐auroral latitudes (60–70 MLAT), and at mid‐latitudes (40–60 MLAT). A 25%–50% depletion in TEC was observed for six days in the day, dusk and dawn sectors in the polar cap region and in the day and dusk sectors at the auroral and sub‐auroral latitudes. Sub‐auroral polarization streams observed by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellite contributed to the sub‐auroral dusk TEC decreases. At mid‐latitudes, TEC depletion was observed in all local time sectors 21 hr after the storm onset. It is suggested that ion‐neutral frictional heating causes the TEC depletions, which is further supported by the observed spatial correlation between TEC depletions and O/N 2 decreases at mid‐latitudes observed by TIMED/GUVI. The storm induced a prolonged positive phase at mid‐latitudes lasting 9 hr. In the polar cap, enhancements of TEC up to 200% were caused by polar cap patches. TEC increases were the dominant feature in the night and morning sectors within the auroral oval because of particle precipitation and resulted up to regionally averaged 6 TECU (200%) increases.
Authors
- Yongliang Zhang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4851-1662)
- A. Marchaudon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1625-3462)
- Lei Cai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0127-7303)
- Heikki Vanhamäki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3454-0350)
- Ilkka Virtanen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7111-8888)
- Pierre‐Louis Blelly (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0458-8417)
- Shin‐ichiro Oyama (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5831-6134)
- Anita T Aikio (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8838-5125)
- Astrid Maute (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3393-0987)
- B. Kunduri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7406-7641)
- A. J. Coster (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8980-6550)
- Gopika Prasannakumara Pillai Geethakumari
- Johannes Norberg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3155-8894)
Institutions
- Finnish Meteorological Institute (FI)
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (FR)
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (US)
- Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (US)
- Université Fédérale de Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées (FR)
- University of Colorado Boulder (US)
- Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (US)
- National Institute of Polar Research (JP)
- Northeast Radio Observatory Corporation (US)
- NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center
- Nagoya University (JP)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Virginia Tech (US)
- University of Oulu (FI)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Journal of Geophysical Research Space Physics
- Published
- 2024-12-01
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1029/2024ja033192
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 1.33
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Academy of Finland
- Tohoku University
- Kvantum-instituutti, Oulun Yliopisto