The global behavior of the March 1989 ionospheric storm

Abstract

By any measure the magnetic storm beginning with a sudden storm commencement at 0128 UT March 13, 1989 must be classified historically as a great storm. Associated with this great magnetic storm was the drastic modification of the normal ionosphere lasting for several days. To study this abnormal behavior, ionospheric data collected at 52 ionosonde stations and 12 total electron content observing stations have been analyzed. The global data show a longitudinal dependence on the storm behavior; a pronounced worldwide depression in the diurnal maximum values of f0F2; the extreme depression of the diurnal-minimum in f0F2 to a frequency less than 2 MHz at many stations, sometimes accompanied by an unprecedented rise in h'F to 700 km or more; the presence of traveling ionospheric disturbances; the presence of large-scale standing oscillations; the development of hemispheric asymmetry; and the suppression of the equatorial anomaly. These and other unusual phenomena are described in this paper.