Open AccessA Study of SuperDARN Response to Co‐occurring Space Weather Phenomena
Author(s) -
Chakraborty S.,
Baker J. B. H.,
Ruohoniemi J. M.,
Kunduri B.,
Nishitani N.,
Shepherd S. G.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
space weather
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.254
H-Index - 56
ISSN - 1542-7390
DOI - 10.1029/2019sw002179
Subject(s) - space weather , coronal mass ejection , solar flare , flare , environmental science , electrojet , radar , convection , atmospheric sciences , meteorology , physics , astrophysics , plasma , computer science , solar wind , earth's magnetic field , telecommunications , quantum mechanics , magnetic field
The Sun was remarkably active during the first week of September 2017 producing numerous solar flares, solar radiation storms, and coronal mass ejections. This activity caused disruption to terrestrial high‐frequency (HF, 3–30 MHz) radio communication channels including observations with the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) HF radars. In this paper, we analyze the response of SuperDARN groundscatter observations and decreases in background sky noise level in response to multiple solar flares occurring in quick succession and co‐occurring with solar energetic protons and auroral activity. We estimate the attenuation in HF signal strength using an approach similar to riometry and find that the radars exhibit a nonlinear response to compound solar flare events. Additionally, we find that the three different space weather drivers have varying degrees of influence on the HF signal properties at different latitudes. Our study demonstrates that in addition to monitoring high‐latitude convection, SuperDARN observations can be used to study the spatiotemporal evolution of disruption to HF communication during extreme space weather conditions.