Extreme Solar Flare-driven Short-wave Fadeout Observed by SuperDARN ZHO Radar

Abstract

Abstract Based on the observations from the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network at the Zhongshan Station (−74.9 MLAT, 97.2 MLON) and GOES satellites X-ray sensor, we present the first statistical study of the dayside ionospheric short-wave fadeout (SWF) events on the Southern Hemispheric high latitude from the years 2010–2019 and provide a normal characteristic of SWF with onset of 6 minutes 54 s, blackout of 20 minutes 24 s, and recovery of 39 minutes 36 s, respectively. All the SWF events in this work are selected to be caused by extreme flares. The statistical analysis shows both short-type and long-type SWF onset phases. Onset/blackout phase duration of long events is highly correlated with flare duration (0.79, 0.60), the SWF is mainly driven by the flare radiation profile, and the soft X-ray flux rise rate is higher for short-onset events than for most long-onset events, which is the main reason for the difference between the two types of events. In addition, the effect of ionospheric sluggishness on long-onset events also needs to be considered. The relationship between each phase’s durations of long SWFs and the effective peak X-ray flux is not obvious. However, the correlation between the integrated effective X-ray flux and the onset/blackout phase duration of long events is significant.