Meteorological response to changes in ionospheric electric potential caused by disturbed solar wind

The ionospheric electric potential (EP) is utilized as a characteristic of the solar forcing to determine the tropospheric response during strong disturbances. We compare EP calculations carried out using the 2001 and 2005 versions of the Weimer model. Differences in the spatial distribution of EP during geomagnetic superstorms have been revealed for the models considered. The behavior of EP anomalies and contrast averaged over high latitudes is shown. The EP contrast is the difference between EP anomalies averaged over regions of the same sign. It has been found that changes in EP anomalies differ in different versions of the model, whereas EP contrast variations, calculated by both versions, behave synchronously during disturbances. Correlation analysis of variations in the averaged EP contrast with variations in the PC geomagnetic index has shown that both can be used as indicators of solar activity to study individual geomagnetic superstorms. An increase in the EP contrast is accompanied by an increase in the contrast of the meteorological parameters, in particular in the contrast of high clouds during disturbances.