Influences of sudden stratospheric warmings on the ionosphere above Okinawa

Hocke, Klemens; Wang, Wenyue; Ma, Guanyi (2024). Influences of sudden stratospheric warmings on the ionosphere above Okinawa. Atmospheric chemistry and physics, 24(10), pp. 5837-5846. Copernicus Publications 10.5194/acp-24-5837-2024

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We analyzed the ionosonde observations from Okinawa (26.7°N, 128.1°E; magnetic latitude: 17.0° N) for the years from 1972 to 2023. Okinawa is in the northern low-latitude ionosphere, where the in- fluences of sudden stratospheric warmings (SSWs) on the ionosphere are expected to be stronger than in the mid- and high-latitude ionospheres. We divided the dataset into winters with major SSWs in the Northern Hemi- sphere (SSW years) and winters without major SSWs (no-SSW years). During the SSW years, the daily cycle of the F2-region electron density maximum (NmF2) is stronger than in the no-SSW years. The relative NmF2 amplitudes of solar and lunar tidal components (S2, O1, M2, MK3) are stronger by 3 % to 8 % in the SSW years than in the no-SSW years. The semidiurnal amplitude, averaged across 29 SSW events, has a significant peak at the central date of the SSW (epoch time 0 of the composite analysis). The SSW influence is not strong: the semidiurnal amplitude is about 38.2 % in the SSW years and about 34.0 % in the no-SSW years (relative to the NmF2 of the background ionosphere). However, there is a sharp decrease in the amplitude of about 10 % after the SSW peak is reached. The amplitude of the diurnal component does not show a single peak at the central date of the SSW. We present the maximal semidiurnal amplitudes of the SSWs since 1972. The SSW of 31 De- cember 1984 has the strongest amplitude (162 %) in the ionosphere above Okinawa (with a high geomagnetic activity, Ap, of 37 nT). The most surprising finding of the study is the strong lunar tides with relative amplitudes of about 10 % and the discovery of a terdiurnal lunar tide (5 %) in the NmF2 during the SSW years. The periods of the ionospheric lunar tides align with the periods of ocean tides and lunisolar variations in the atmosphere.

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