A global picture of the ionosphere response to solar wind during equinox

Abstract

The ionosphere can change significantly with the solar wind conditions. Especially during storm conditions, e.g. the impact of an interplanetary coronal mass ejections, large deviations from quiet conditions can be observed in different ionospheric observables. Modelling and predictions of ionospheric storm conditions is a great challenge because of the large variability in the storm characteristics and so far, there is no global model, which is capable in reproducing ionosphere storm conditions. In our study, we analyse the Total Electron Content (TEC) with respect to its response to solar wind conditions with the goal to extract general characteristics for different regions, local times and delays to solar wind variability. Statistical analysis is applied on the TEC map data provided by the International GNSS Service for the period 2005-2023. We compare these general characteristics with a recent very strong storm in May 2024 to show, how well they agree with actual storm characteristics.