Evaluation of E-Layer Dominated Ionosphere Events Using CHAMP, COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3 and FY3C Data

Under certain space weather conditions the ionization level of the ionospheric E layer can dominate over that of the F2 layer. This phenomenon is known as “E layer dominated ionosphere” (ELDI) and occurs primarily at high latitudes in the polar regions. The corresponding electron density profiles show their peak ionization at the E layer height between 80 km and 150 km above the Earth’s surface. In this work we have evaluated the influence of space weather and geophysical conditions on the occurrence of ELDI events at high latitudes in the northern and southern hemispheres. For this, we used electron density profiles derived from ionospheric radio occultation measurements aboard CHAMP, COSMIC and FY3C satellites. The used CHAMP data covers the years from 2001 to 2008, the COSMIC data the years from 2006 to 2018 and the FY3C data the years from 2014 to 2018. This provides us continuous data coverage for a long period from 2001 to 2018, containing about 4 million electron density profiles. In addition to the geospatial distribution, we have also investigated the temporal occurrence of ELDI events in the form of the diurnal, the seasonal and the solar activity dependent variation. We have further investigated the influence of geomagnetic storms on the spatial and temporal occurrence of ELDI events.