Analysis of the effects of auroral substorms on the data of ionosphere vertical sounding in the Arctic

The problem of diagnosing and predicting the characteristics of the polar ionosphere can be investigated by studying the effect of magnetospheric disturbances on the high-latitude ionosphere. Our task is to investigate the dependence of the variations in the electron concentration F of the ionosphere region at the subauroral stations of vertical sounding (VS) Sodankyla, Lovozero and Gorkovskaya on variations in the geomagnetic field. The data of AE and PC of geomagnetic indices were used during substorms in the winter of 2011–2012. For analysis, the epoch overlapping method was used. As a result, it was shown that the perturbation in the electromagnetic field is accompanied by a subsequent amplification of variations during the critical frequencies fоF2, and hence the electron concentration, auroral and subauroral ionosphere. We conclude that the geomagnetic indices AE and PC can serve as predictors of disturbances during the ionospheric parameter fоF2 of the high-latitude ionosphere in the winter season. An increase in the amplitude level of AE from 100 to 350 nT (and PC > 2) during the night hours of the winter season precedes an increase in the critical frequencies of the ionosphere F2 layer by an average of 30% of the median. An increase in the amplitude level of AE from 180 to 520 nT (and PC> 2) in the winter season in the afternoon precedes the positive or negative deviation of the critical frequencies of the ionosphere F2 layer from the median by a mean of 10%. The response of the high-latitude ionosphere of the F2 layer to variations in the AE and PC indices appears in the first hour after the maximum during geomagnetic indices, the delay of the maximum deviation from the median 1 hour at night and 3 hours in the afternoon at Lovozero station, at Sodankyla and Gorkovskaya is about 3 hours at night and weakly expressed during the day. I declare I have no competing interests.