Studying the response of the mid-latitude ionosphere of the Northern Hemisphere to magnetic storms in March 2012

Abstract

We have studied variations in ionospheric and geomagnetic parameters in the Northern Hemisphere during a series of magnetic storms in March 2012 by analyzing data from the Eurasian mid-latitude ionosonde chain, mid- and high-latitude chains of magnetometers of the global network INTERMAGNET. We have confirmed manifestations of the longitude inhomogeneity of ionospheric effects, which is associated with the irregular structure of the longitudinal variability of geomagnetic field components. The complex physics of the long magnetically disturbed period in March 2012 with switching between positive and negative phases of the ionospheric storm in the same period of the magnetic storm for different spatial regions is emphasized. The change in the effects of the ionospheric storm during this period might have been associated with the superposition in the mid-latitude region of the competing processes affecting the ionospheric ionization whose sources were in the auroral and equatorial ionosphere. We have compared the scenarios for the development of ionospheric disturbances under equinox conditions during magnetic storms in March 2012, October 2016, and March 2015.