Tropospheric response to solar effects during geomagnetic superstorms in solar cycle 23

The ionospheric electric potential (EP) is used as a heliogeophysical parameter to analyze tropospheric response to solar impacts during geomagnetic superstorms in solar cycle 23. According to observational data, the response of meteoparameters is shown to concur with EP variations during the November 20, 2003 geomagnetic superstorm caused by an extreme geoeffective event. The tropospheric response is time-shifted versus EP maximum during the July 15, 2000 magnetic superstorm: increased precipitable water is observed in 6 hrs; decreased outgoing longwave radiation, in 12 hrs; increased upper cloudiness, in 18 hrs. We have found that the amplitude of the meteoparameters’ response to EP variations during the July 15, 2000 magnetic superstorm is about half as low as that of the tropospheric response during the November 20, 2003 geomagnetic superstorm.