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The purpose of this work is to investigate the response of the F region and topside ionosphere to the moderate geomagnetic storm on December 21, 2016 (Kp max = 6). The subject of the study is the height–time variations in the parameters of the ionospheric plasma over Kharkiv. Experimental data were obtained using vertical sounding and incoherent scatter methods by the ionosonde and incoherent scatter radar. The presented results are based on the correlation analysis of the incoherent scattered signal. The ion and electron temperatures, as well as the ionospheric plasma velocity, were determined from a set of measured correlation functions of the incoherently scattered signal. The electron density was calculated using the following parameters measured for a number of ionospheric heights: power of the incoherent scatter signal, ion and electron temperatures, and the electron density at the ionospheric F2 layer peak, which is calculated from the critical frequency measured by the ionosonde. The moderate geomagnetic storm was accompanied by an ionospheric storm over Kharkiv with sign-variable phases (first positive and second negative). The peak increase in the electron density was 1.8 times and decrease was 3.4 times. The negative phase was accompanied by a slight rise of the F2 layer (by 20–28 km), which could be due to a decrease in the vertical component of the plasma velocity and an increase in the electron temperature by 600–800 K and ion temperature by 100–160 K. Effects of strong negative ionospheric disturbances were registered during the subsequent magnetospheric disturbance of December 22–24, 2016, with a decrease in electron density at the F2 layer peak up to 2.5–4.9 times. The effects of negative disturbances manifested themselves in the variations of temperatures of electrons and ions. In general, the moderate magnetic storm caused significant changes in the electron density in the ionospheric F2 layer peak, which were accompanied by heating of the ionospheric plasma as well as changes in variations of the vertical component of the ionospheric plasma velocity and the height of ionization during the main phase of the magnetic storm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study presents a suggestion for improvement of the ion temperature (Ti) model in the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI). We have re-examined ion temperature data (primarily available from NASA's Space Physics Data Facility (SPDF)from older satellites and combined them with newly available data from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP), the Communication Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS), and from the recently launched Ionospheric Connection Explorer (ICON). We have compiled these data into a unified database comprising in total Ti data from 18 satellites. By comparisons with long term records of ion temperature from the three incoherent scatter radars (ISRs) (Jicamarca, Arecibo, and Millstone Hill), it was found that an intercalibration is needed to achieve consistency with the ISR data and among individual satellite data sets. This database with thus corrected data has been used for the development of a new global empirical model of Ti with inclusion of solar activity variation. This solar activity dependence is represented by an additive correction term to the Ti global pattern. Due to the limited data coverage at altitudes above 1000 km, the altitude range described by the model ranges from 350 km to 850 km covering only the region where generally Ti is higher than the neutral temperature (Tn) and lower than the electron temperature (Te). This approach is consistent with the current description of Ti in the IRI model. However, instead of one anchor point at 430 km altitude as in the current IRI, our approach includes anchor points at 350, 430, 600, and 850 km. At altitudes above 850 km Ti is merged using a gradient derived from the model at 600 and 850 km, with the electron temperature described by the IRI-2016/TBT-2012 option. Comparisons with the ISR data (Jicamarca, Arecibo, Millstone Hill, and Kharkiv) for high and low solar activity and equinox show that the proposed Ti model captures local time variation of Ti at different altitudes and latitudes better than the current IRI-2016 Ti model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]