Climatology of ionosphericF-region disturbances

Abstract

After more than 60 years of research, ionospheric disturbances are today a most challenging topic of upper atmospheric physics. Although the understanding of the thermosphere-ionosphere system has increased, quantitative predictions of ionospheric perturbations, valid for space weather assessment, are still imprecise. Using a long foF2 dataset, an analytical climatology of the F-region storms is presented as a function of appropriate variables. Local phenomena are then detected.

Keywords

• ionosphere
• F2-layer critical frequency
• ionospheric disturbances