The classical multidimensional scaling(MDS) method is introduced and applied in the study of the hour-to-hour ionospheric variability based on the ionospheric fo F2 observed at three ionosonde stations in East-Asia in 2002 and 2007. Results from the matrix eigen decompositions indicate that the annual part of the ionospheric variation is large in middle latitude and solar maximum period(2002) while low in the low latitude and solar minimum period(2007). The connectivity maps of the hour-to-hour ionospheric variability based on MDS method show some common diurnal features. The ionospheric connectivity between adjacent hours near noon hours and near midnight hours is high. The ionospheric connectivity between adjacent hours near sunrise hours and near sunset hours is poor, especially for the sunrise hours. Also there are latitudinal and solar activity dependences in this kind of connectivity. These results revealed from the ionospheric connectivity maps are useful physically and in practice for the ionospheric forecasting on the hour-to-hour scale.
In this work,the ionospheric variability is analyzed by applying the wavelet decomposition technique to the noontime fo F2,F10.7,interplanetary magnetic field(IMF)Bz,Ap,and lower thermospheric temperature at pressure of 10?4 h Pa in 2002.Results show that the variance of periodic oscillations in the ionosphere is largest in the 2–4-day period and declines with the increase of the period.The maximum variance of the periodic oscillations in solar irradiation is in the 16–32-day period.For geomagnetic activities,most of the variance is about equally distributed on intervals of periods shorter than 32 days.Variance distributions of IMF Bz and lower thermospheric temperature are similar to those of the ionosphere.They show the maximum in the 2–4-day period and decline with the increase of the period.By analyzing the distributions of the variances,the potential connections between the ionosphere and the external sources are discussed.
From Nov. 6 to 10, 2004, a large number of solar events occurred, which triggered many solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). These CMEs caused two large geomagnetic storms and continuous energy proton events. During this period, one large positive ionospheric storm happened over the East-Asian region on Nov. 8, 2004. On Nov. 10, 2004, a strong spread-F was observed by the ionosonde located in the mid-latitude region of East China and Japan, and the ionospheric fluctuation over the ionosonde stations derived from GPS observation was also obvious. In this report, the characteristics of the spatial distribution of the ionosphere fluctuation and its temporal evolution are studied using the parameter of the rate of total electron content (ROT) derived from dual-frequency GPS measurement. Strong fluctuating activity of the ionosphere was found over the mid-latitude region in the southern and northern hemispheres between longitudes of 100°E and 180°E during the magnetic storm period on Nov. 10, 2004, and a regular movement of the disturbing region was observed. In the end, the reason of the ionospheric fluctuation during this magnetic storm is analyzed.
