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Atmosphere
Special Issues
Ionospheric Irregularity
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Ionospheric Irregularity

A special issue of Atmosphere (ISSN 2073-4433). This special issue belongs to the section "Upper Atmosphere".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 May 2024 | Viewed by 2523

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Qiong Tang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Space Science and Applied Technology, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China
Interests: ionospheric physics; mesosphere and low thermosphere; radiowave propagation and application
Dr. Yi Liu

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Space Physics, Wuhan University, Luojiasha, Wuhan, China
Interests: ionospheric irregularity; space weather; radiowave propagation and application

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Ionospheric irregularities are disturbances or variations in the ionospheric plasma that can impact the propagation of radio waves, satellite signals, and other forms of electromagnetic radiation. Ground-based and satellite instruments have observed ionospheric irregularities with spatial scales ranging from meters to thousands of kilometers, including sporadic E (Es) and spread F (SF) in ionograms, field-aligned irregularities (FAIs), and plasma bubbles in radar maps, traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) in optical images, and total electron content (TEC) perturbation maps.

The formation of irregularities is generally attributed to ionospheric instability mechanisms, including: wind shear theory for Es, two-stream instability (TSI), and gradient-drift instability (GDI) for E region FAIs at the equator and low latitudes, atmospheric gravity waves, GDI, Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI), and Es-layer instability for E region FAIs at mid-latitudes, Rayleigh–Taylor (R-T) instability for plasma bubbles and equatorial SF, and the breaking of atmospheric gravity waves and Perkins instability for SF and medium-scale TIDs (MSTIDs) at mid-latitudes. In all the above instability mechanisms, electric fields and neutral winds play dominant roles in the generation of ionospheric irregularities.

One common type of ionospheric irregularity is called ionospheric scintillation, which is characterized by small-scale variations in the ionospheric plasma that cause fluctuations in the amplitude, phase, and polarization of radio signals passing through the ionosphere. Scintillations can cause signal fading, loss of signal lock, and other forms of signal degradation. Therefore, ionospheric irregularities are an important consideration for communication and navigation systems.

Authors are encouraged to submit original papers that include but are not limited to topics of observations, modeling, instrumentation, etc. Review papers and technical notes are also welcome.

Dr. Qiong Tang
Dr. Yi Liu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Atmosphere is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Ionospheric irregularities
  • Communication and navigation systems
  • Ionospheric scintillation
  • Ionospheric plasma.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 6456 KiB  
Article
Correlation of Rate of TEC Index and Spread F over European Ionosondes
by Krishnendu Sekhar Paul, Mehdi Hasan Rafi, Haris Haralambous and Mohammad Golam Mostafa
Atmosphere 2024, 15(3), 331; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15030331 - 07 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1262
Abstract
One of the most popular indices for monitoring the occurrence and intensity of ionospheric L-band irregularities is the Rate of TEC Index (ROTI). Due to low TEC in the mid-latitude ionosphere, ROTI has received significantly less attention than the equatorial and polar ionosphere. [...] Read more.
One of the most popular indices for monitoring the occurrence and intensity of ionospheric L-band irregularities is the Rate of TEC Index (ROTI). Due to low TEC in the mid-latitude ionosphere, ROTI has received significantly less attention than the equatorial and polar ionosphere. On the other hand, spread F is an established ionogram irregularity signature. The present study aims to correlate ROTI and spread F activity over European Digisonde stations for a low-to-moderate solar activity year (2011). With a focus on the latitude-dependent occurrence, the analysis demonstrates that range spread F (RSF) has been identified for all notable ROTI (>0.15 TECU/min) cases which also coincide with MSTID activity over the stations, suggesting induced gravity waves or polarization electric fields as the driving mechanism for enhanced ROTI activity. The diurnal and seasonal features are also presented. Maximum irregularity occurrence was observed around the 45° N from 18:00 to 05:00 UT with the seasonal maximum occurrence in January. Over lower mid-latitude Digisonde stations (latitude < 45° N), the diurnal and seasonal occurrence was observed from 19:00 to 04:30 UT in July. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ionospheric Irregularity)
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13 pages, 1950 KiB  
Article
Multi-Time-Scale Analysis of Chaos and Predictability in vTEC
by Massimo Materassi, Yenca Migoya-Orué, Sandro Maria Radicella, Tommaso Alberti and Giuseppe Consolini
Atmosphere 2024, 15(1), 84; https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15010084 - 09 Jan 2024
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Abstract
Theoretical modelling of the local ionospheric medium (LIM) is made difficult by the occurrence of irregular ionospheric behaviours at many space and time scales, making prior hypotheses uncertain. Investigating the LIM from scratch with the tools of dynamical system theory may be an [...] Read more.
Theoretical modelling of the local ionospheric medium (LIM) is made difficult by the occurrence of irregular ionospheric behaviours at many space and time scales, making prior hypotheses uncertain. Investigating the LIM from scratch with the tools of dynamical system theory may be an option, using the vertical total electron content (vTEC) as an appropriate tracer of the system variability. An embedding procedure is applied to vTEC time series to obtain the finite dimension (m∈N) of the phase space of an LIM-equivalent dynamical system, as well as its correlation dimension (D2) and Kolmogorov entropy rate (K2). In this paper, the dynamical features (m,D2,K2) are studied for the vTEC on the top of three GNSS stations depending on the time scale (τ) at which the vTEC is observed. First, the vTEC undergoes empirical mode decomposition; then (m,D2,K2) are calculated as functions of τ. This captures the multi-scale structure of the Earth’s ionospheric dynamics, demonstrating a net distinction between the behaviour at τ≤24h and τ≥24h. In particular, sub-diurnal-scale modes are assimilated to much more chaotic systems than over-diurnal-scale modes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Ionospheric Irregularity)
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