Ionospheric Oscillation with Periods of 6–30 Days at Middle Latitudes: A Response to Solar Radiative, Geomagnetic, and Lower Atmospheric Forcing

Abstract

This research studies the medium timescale (6–30 days) ionospheric response over the Wuhan area to solar radiative, recurrent geomagnetic, and lower atmospheric forcing. The ionospheric response is examined by wavelet analysis of the total electron content (TEC) over the Wuhan area from 2001 to 2020. Ionospheric oscillations with periods centering at the harmonic oscillations of the 27-day solar rotation (e.g., 27 days, 13.5 days, 9 days, and 6.75 days) are focused upon. The results show that the quasi-27-day TEC oscillations at the middle latitude have a better overall correlation with solar radiation than recurrent geomagnetic activity, but the correlation between TEC and recurrent geomagnetic activity has a significant increase at the solar minimum stage. As for ionospheric oscillations with periods shorter than 15 days, these oscillations correlate better with recurrent geomagnetic activity. Moreover, a quasi-27-day TEC oscillation event at the middle latitude caused by convective activity from the lower atmosphere was studied. This suggests that lower atmospheric forcing is also an important factor causing ionospheric oscillations. In addition, the ionospheric oscillations over the Wuhan area also show unique regional characteristics, as the regional ionosphere does not respond well to the Kp oscillation with periods shorter than 20 days, particularly, 13.5 days.