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A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Atmospheric Remote Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 May 2024 | Viewed by 6205

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Dr. Chunhua Jiang

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Guest Editor

Department of Space Physics, School of Electronic Information, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
Interests: ionospheric irregularities; traveling ionospheric disturbances; ionosonde; ionograms autoscaling; radio wave propagation; simulation of plasma irregularities; planetary ionospheric irregularities
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Dr. Huijun Le

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Guest Editor

Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China
Interests: ionospheric weather; ionospheric modeling; ionospheric data assimilation; ionosphere—thermosphere coupling; planetary ionosphere
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Dr. Ercha Aa

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Guest Editor

MIT Haystack Observatory, Westford, MA 01886, USA
Interests: ionospheric irregularities; ionospheric data assimilation; GNSS and radio occultation; subauroral electrodynamics; ionosphere—thermosphere coupling; geospace storm effects
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Dr. Zheng Li

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Guest Editor

Institute of Space Weather, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, NO. 219, Ningliu Road, Nanjing 210044, China
Interests: nitric oxide cooling in lower thermosphere; ionosphere and middle atmosphere coupling; thermospheric and ionospheric storms
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The ionosphere, where atoms and molecules are partly ionized by solar radiation, constitutes a significant part of Earth’s upper atmosphere. The free electrons in the ionosphere can significantly affect the propagation of radio waves. The ionosphere plays a critical role in communications and navigation systems in our daily life. Therefore, developing our understanding of this section of our atmosphere is of great importance for human activities. The ionosphere has strong temporal and spatial variability. Being coupled downward to the lower atmosphere and upward to the magnetosphere, the ionosphere is not only affected by solar activities, but also by the lower atmospheric waves and geomagnetic disturbances. The ionosphere is also controlled by photochemical, dynamic, and electrodynamic processes. As a result, there are many open questions in the ionospheric community, such as the day-to-day variation in the ionosphere, ionospheric irregularities, ionospheric longitudinal structure, the forecasting of the ionosphere, ionospheric storms, etc.

The middle and upper atmosphere are located at the end of the solar terrestrial energy transfer chain and play important roles space science research. The middle and upper atmosphere comprise the passage zone for various spacecraft and the residence zone for low-orbit spacecraft. Therefore, the heating and cooling process, the temporal and spatial variability, and the transient structure of the atmosphere at this altitude have significant impact on the safety and precise orbit entry of spacecraft.

With the development of modern techniques, many methods of remote sensing of the ionosphere and the atmosphere, including ionosondes, radars, radio occultations, GNSS receivers, and airglow observations from the ground and spacecraft, etc., have emerged to assist in further understanding the ionosphere and the atmosphere.

In this Special Issue, we aim to improve the understanding of ionospheric and atmospheric physics by the application of remote sensing of the ionosphere and atmosphere. Both original research and review papers are welcome.

We encourage contributions to topics including but not limited to:

Spatial and temporal distributions in the ionosphere/atmosphere
Ionospheric irregularities
Ionospheric/thermosphric modeling
Ionospheric data assimilation
Ionosphere-Thermosphere coupling
Traveling ionospheric/atmospheric disturbances
Remote sensing by radio waves and optical imaging
Ionospheric/thermospheric weather

This Special Issue is the second edition of Remote Sensing Special Issue entitled Applications of Remote Sensing in Monitoring Ionospheric Physics and Ionospheric Weather Forecasting.

Dr. Chunhua Jiang
Dr. Huijun Le
Dr. Ercha Aa
Dr. Zheng Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

ionosphere
atmosphere
ionospheric irregularities
ionospheric/thermosphric modelling
data assimilation
geomagnetic storms
radars
radio occultations
GNSS TEC
airglow observations

Related Special Issue

Applications of Remote Sensing in Monitoring Ionospheric Physics and Ionospheric Weather Forecasting in Remote Sensing (17 articles)

Published Papers (9 papers)

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27 pages, 10426 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multi-Instrument Observation of the Ionospheric Irregularities and Disturbances during the 23–24 March 2023 Geomagnetic Storm

by Afnan Tahir, Falin Wu, Munawar Shah, Christine Amory-Mazaudier, Punyawi Jamjareegulgarn, Tobias G. W. Verhulst and Muhammad Ayyaz Ameen

Remote Sens. 2024, 16(9), 1594; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16091594 - 30 Apr 2024

Viewed by 340

Abstract

This work investigates the ionospheric response to the March 2023 geomagnetic storm over American and Asian sectors from total electron content (TEC), rate of TEC index, ionospheric heights, Swarm plasma density, radio occultation profiles of Formosat-7/Cosmic-2 (F7/C2), Fabry-Perot interferometer driven neutral winds, and E region electric field. During the storm’s main phase, post-sunset equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) extend to higher latitudes in the western American longitudes, showing significant longitudinal differences in the American sector. Over the Indian longitudes, suppression of post-sunset irregularities is observed, attributed to the westward prompt penetration electric field (PPEF). At the early recovery phase, the presence of post-midnight/near-sunrise EPBs till post-sunrise hours in the American sector is associated with the disturbance of dynamo-electric fields (DDEF). Additionally, a strong consistency between F7/C2 derived amplitude scintillation (S4) ≥ 0.5 and EPB occurrences is observed. Furthermore, a strong eastward electric field induced an increase in daytime TEC beyond the equatorial ionization anomaly crest in the American region, which occurred during the storm’s main phase. Both the Asian and American sectors exhibit negative ionospheric storms and inhibition of ionospheric irregularities at the recovery phase, which is dominated by the disturbance dynamo effect due to equatorward neutral winds. A slight increase in TEC in the Asian sector during the recovery phase could be explained by the combined effect of DDEF and thermospheric composition change. Overall, storm-time ionospheric variations are controlled by the combined effects of PPEF and DDEF. This study may further contribute to understanding the ionospheric responses under the influence of storm-phase and LT-dependent electric fields. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Remote Sensing in Monitoring Ionospheric and Atmospheric Physics)

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16 pages, 5184 KiB

Open AccessArticle

A New Determining Method for Ionospheric F2-Region Peak Electron Density Height

by Jian Wang, Qiao Yu, Yafei Shi, Cheng Yang, Shengyun Ji and Yu Zheng

Remote Sens. 2024, 16(3), 531; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16030531 - 30 Jan 2024

Viewed by 605

Abstract

The height of the F2 peak electron density (hmF2) is an essential parameter in studying ionospheric electrodynamics and high-frequency wireless communication. Based on ionosphere ray propagation theory, the physical relationship between M3000F2 and hmF2 is derived and visualized. Furthermore, based on the above physical theory and the machine learning method, this paper proposes a new model for determining hmF2 using propagation factor at a distance of 3000 km from the ionospheric F2 layer, time, and season. This proposed model is easy to understand and has the characteristics of clear principles, simple structure, and easy application. Furthermore, we used six stations in east Asia to verify this model and compare it with the other three models of the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model. The results show that the proposed model (PRO) has minor error and higher accuracy. Specifically the RMSE of the BSE, AMTB, SHU, and the PRO models were 20.35 km, 31.51 km, 13.59 km, and 5.68 km, respectively, and the RRMSE of the BSE, AMTB, SHU, and PRO models were 8.17%, 11.88%, 4.96%, and 2.12%, respectively. In addition, the experimental results show that the PRO model can better predict the trend of the hmF2 inflection point. This method can be further extended to add data sources and provide new ideas for studying the hmF2 over global regions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Remote Sensing in Monitoring Ionospheric and Atmospheric Physics)

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12 pages, 5712 KiB

Open AccessCommunication

Seasonal Variations in Ion Density, Ion Temperature, and Migrating Tides in the Topside Ionosphere Revealed by ICON/IVM

by Zheng Ma, Yun Gong, Shaodong Zhang, Jiaxin Bao, Song Yin and Qihou Zhou

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(21), 5205; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15215205 - 01 Nov 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 876

Abstract

Based on the plasma parameters measured by the Ion Velocity Meter (IVM) instrument on the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) satellite from 2020 to 2021, we present an analysis of seasonal variations in ion density, ion temperature, and migrating tides in the low-latitude topside ionosphere. The interannual variations in total ion density and O⁺ density are directly impacted by solar radiation. However, the concentration of H⁺ is not highly related to solar activity. The measurements show that the hemispheric dividing latitude for the seasonal variation in T_i is at about 9°N. We suggest that the reason for the hemispheric dividing latitude being 9°N is because measurements at this geographical latitude represent the closest match to the geomagnetic equator. An anticorrelation in the seasonal variations between the total ion density (as well as the O⁺ density) and the ion temperature is observed at all observed latitudes while the correlations between H⁺ density and the ion temperature are positive in most of the latitudes except for serval degrees around 9°N. The latitudinal variations in the correlation coefficients lead us to suggest that thermal conduction is likely more important than ion-neutral collision in the ion energy budget at 600 km. Additionally, semiannual oscillations with peak amplitudes in winters and summers at the extra-equatorial latitudes are revealed in the observations of diurnal migrating tides in the topside ionosphere, which are different from the latitudinal and seasonal distributions of diurnal migrating tides captured in the lower thermospheric temperature and total electron content. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Remote Sensing in Monitoring Ionospheric and Atmospheric Physics)

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11 pages, 3046 KiB

Open AccessTechnical Note

Occurrence Characteristics of Nighttime Merged EIA Based on NASA GOLD Observations from 2018 to 2023

by Kun Wu and Liying Qian

Remote Sens. 2024, 16(9), 1575; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16091575 - 29 Apr 2024

Viewed by 293

Abstract

The ionosphere equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) is usually characterized by two plasma density maxima in the Earth’s equatorial region. Merged EIA (MEIA) is a unique phenomenon in the evolution of the EIA. Currently, the occurrence characteristics of MEIA are still not well understood. In this study, we investigate the occurrence characteristics of nighttime MEIA using NASA Global-scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) observations between October 2018 and the end of 2023. We found that the occurrence of nighttime MEIA exhibits solar cycle, seasonal, and local time variations. The occurrence rate of the MEIA is inversely dependent on solar activity. Occurrence of the MEIA maximizes near the equinoxes, with a primary (secondary) low occurrence rate near the June (December) solstice. In addition, occurrences of the MEIA are suppressed during the pre-reversal enhancement (PRE), resulting in relatively fewer events. Furthermore, it was found that the occurrence of the MEIA is not significantly dependent on the strength of geomagnetic activity. As far as we know, this study represents the first instance of utilizing observations from GOLD observations to investigate the characteristics of MEIA occurrences and their correlations with solar activity, season, and local time. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Remote Sensing in Monitoring Ionospheric and Atmospheric Physics)

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15 pages, 3209 KiB

Open AccessTechnical Note

Effects of Equatorial Plasma Bubbles on Multi-GNSS Signals: A Case Study over South China

by Hao Han, Jiahao Zhong, Yongqiang Hao, Ningbo Wang, Xin Wan, Fuqing Huang, Qiaoling Li, Xingyan Song, Jiawen Chen, Kang Wang, Yanyan Tang, Zhuoliang Ou and Wenyu Du

Remote Sens. 2024, 16(8), 1358; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16081358 - 12 Apr 2024

Viewed by 354

Abstract

Equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) occur frequently in low-latitude areas and have a non-negligible impact on navigation satellite signals. To systematically analyze the effects of a single EPB event on multi-frequency signals of GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and BDS, all-sky airglow images over South China are jointly used to visually determine the EPB structure and depletion degree. The results reveal that scintillations, or GNSS signal fluctuations, are directly linked to EPBs and that the intensity of scintillation is positively correlated with the airglow depletion intensity. The center of the airglow depletion often corresponds to stronger GNSS scintillation, while the edge of the bubble, which is considered to have the largest density gradient, corresponds to relatively smaller scintillation instead. This work also systematically analyzes the responses of multi-constellation and multi-frequency signals to EPBs. The results show that the L2 and L5 frequencies are more susceptible than the L1 frequency is. For different constellations, Galileo’s signal has the best tracking stability during an EPB event compared with GPS, GLONASS, and BDS. The results provide a reference for dual-frequency signal selection in precise positioning or TEC calculation, that is, L1C and L2L for GPS, L1C and L5Q for Galileo, L1P and L2C for GLONASS, and L1P and L5P for BDS. Notably, BDS-2 is significantly weaker than BDS-3. And inclined geosynchronous orbit (IGSO) satellites have abnormal data error rates, which should be related to the special signal path trajectory of the IGSO satellite. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Remote Sensing in Monitoring Ionospheric and Atmospheric Physics)

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15 pages, 3819 KiB

Open AccessTechnical Note

Statistical Characteristics of Spread F in the Northeastern Edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau during 2017–2022

by Zhichao Liu, Chunhua Jiang, Tongxin Liu, Lehui Wei, Guobin Yang, Hua Shen, Wengeng Huang and Zhengyu Zhao

Remote Sens. 2024, 16(7), 1142; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16071142 - 25 Mar 2024

Viewed by 470

Abstract

Spread F (SF) in the ionosphere can be observed frequently in mid-latitude regions. It is suggested that atmospheric gravity waves play a significant role for the seeding of mid-latitude SF. Previous research suggested that the source of travelling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) over China is in the southeastern and northeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, however, until now there have been no ground-based observations of the ionosphere in this region. Recently, an advanced digital ionosonde was installed at Zhangye station (39.2°N, 100.54°E, Dip Lat 29.6°N) in the northeastern edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It is an opportunity to verify the effect of gravity waves on the formation of mid-latitude SF by comparing it with observations in other regions of the Chinese sector. In this study, statistical analysis of SF recorded at Zhangye station during 2017–2022 was carried out. Results show that diurnal, seasonal and solar cycle characteristics of the occurrence rate of SF are similar with previous studies. At Zhangye station, the maximum occurrence rate of SF is during the post-midnight period in summer and winter. The occurrence rate of SF events have a negative relationship with solar activity. There is no obvious relationship between the occurrence rate of SF and geomagnetic activity. Comparing observations of other stations in the mid-latitude region, we found that the occurrence rates of SF (the annual maximum rates are from 33.83% to 53.29%) are much higher at Zhangye station. Further studies show that ionospheric disturbances can be observed frequently at Zhangye station, especially in autumn and winter. Gravity waves/TIDs in the northeast of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are suggested to explain the abnormal higher occurrence rate of SF at Zhangye station. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Remote Sensing in Monitoring Ionospheric and Atmospheric Physics)

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13 pages, 1283 KiB

Open AccessTechnical Note

The Turkey Earthquake Induced Equatorial Ionospheric Current Disturbances on 6 February 2023

by Kedeng Zhang, Hui Wang, Hao Xia, Wenbin Wang, Jing Liu, Shunrong Zhang and Yaqi Jin

Remote Sens. 2024, 16(2), 272; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16020272 - 10 Jan 2024

Viewed by 849

Abstract

An earthquake is a seismic event resulting from a sudden release of energy in the lithosphere, which produces waves that can propagate through the atmosphere into the ionosphere, causing ionospheric disturbances, and excites an additional electric field in the lower ionosphere. Two large-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (LSTIDs) at daytime Turkey longitudes were found, with phase speeds of 534 and 305 m/s, respectively, after the second strong earthquake at 10:24 UT on 6 February 2023. During strong earthquakes, the equatorial ionospheric currents including the E-region equatorial electrojet (EEJ) and F-region ionospheric radial current (IRC) might be perturbed. At the Tatuoca station in Brazil, we observed a stronger-than-usual horizontal magnetic field associated with the EEJ, with a magnitude of ~100 nT. EEJ perturbations are mainly controlled by neutral winds, especially zonal winds. In the equatorial F-region, a wave perturbation of the IRC was caused by a balance of the electric field generated by the zonal winds at ~15° MLat, the F-region local winds driven by atmospheric resonance, and the additional polarization electric field. Our findings better the understanding of the complex interplay between seismic events and ionospheric current disturbances. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Remote Sensing in Monitoring Ionospheric and Atmospheric Physics)

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12 pages, 5460 KiB

Open AccessTechnical Note

The Responses of Ozone to the Solar Eclipse on the 21st of June 2020 in the Mesosphere and Upper Stratosphere

by Jingyuan Li, Shuwen Jiang, Jingrui Yao, Jingqi Cui, Jianyong Lu, Yufeng Tian, Chaolei Yang, Shiping Xiong, Guanchun Wei, Xiaoping Zhang, Shuai Fu, Zhixin Zhu, Jingye Wang, Zheng Li and Hua Zhang

Remote Sens. 2024, 16(1), 14; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16010014 - 20 Dec 2023

Viewed by 759

Abstract

Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS) observations showed an obvious variation of ozone concentration during the annular solar eclipse on 21 June 2020 in the mesosphere and upper stratosphere. Ozone concentration slightly reduced near 40 km in the regions of 24°N–36°N, and increased in low latitudes at 40 km. In the heights of 45–60 km, the increase in ozone concentration in most of the regions was obvious. The ozone increases and decreases were more obvious between 60–65 km, where enhancement took the leading role. The nighttime ozone variation was weaker than the daytime in most of the heights of 30–65 km. The variation of HO₂ and CO is investigated to study the photochemical and dynamical causes of ozone variation. As HO₂ decreased at 1 hPa and increased at 60–65 km, ozone variation shows a mostly reversed relationship to HO₂ variation. CO increased at 32–39 km and decreased at 52–60 km, which was related to the upwelling at these heights. The dynamic processes also contributed to the decrease in ozone concentration at 40 km and increase at 50–60 km. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Remote Sensing in Monitoring Ionospheric and Atmospheric Physics)

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14 pages, 14429 KiB

Open AccessTechnical Note

A New Approach to the Ionosphere at Middle and Low Latitudes under the Geomagnetic Quiet Time of December 2019 by ICON and GOLD Observations

by Hao Sun, Jiawei Kuai, Jiahao Zhong, Libo Liu, Ruilong Zhang, Lianhuan Hu and Qiaoling Li

Remote Sens. 2023, 15(23), 5591; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15235591 - 01 Dec 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 951

Abstract

It has been found that the total electron content (TEC) and the ionospheric electric fields indicated by the geomagnetic data showed inconsistent changes with each other at the mid- and low latitudes in both the American and the Asian–Australian sectors during geomagnetic quiet time (GQT) from 30 November to 8 December 2019 (Kpmax = 1.7). Meanwhile, the effects of thermospheric compositions are still indistinct. In this work, we analyze the mid/low-latitude ionospheric variations during this period, utilizing multi-instrument observations. The vertical drift velocities from the Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON) show significant variations and are in line with the changes in TEC at low latitudes in both of the two sectors. The zonal electric fields are supposed to play the main role in the TEC changes. This is also confirmed by the ionospheric F2 layer parameters data from the ionosonde stations at Sanya in the Asian–Australian sectors. The correlation between the variations in the geomagnetic H component (ΔH) and ionospheric F-layer electric fields can be affected by solar activity levels. The geomagnetic data ΔH sometimes may not indicate the magnitude of the electric fields in the F-region ionosphere under geomagnetic quiet conditions. The column density ratio of atomic oxygen (O) to molecular nitrogen (N₂) (∑O/N₂) from the Global Scale Observations of the Limb and Disk (GOLD) showed a strong enhancement at mid-latitudes in the American sector on 30 November. It is speculated that the neutral compositions should make a minor contribution to the changes in TEC during this event, compared with the electric fields. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Applications of Remote Sensing in Monitoring Ionospheric and Atmospheric Physics)

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