Modeling the effect of sudden stratospheric warming within the thermosphere-ionosphere system

This paper presents an investigation of thermospheric and ionospheric response to the sudden stratospheric warming (SSW) event, which took place in January 2009. This period was characterized by low solar and geomagnetic activity. Analysis was carried out within the Global Self-consistent Model of Thermosphere, Ionosphere and Protonosphere (GSM TIP). The experimental data of the atmospheric temperatures obtained by Aura satellite above Irkutsk and ionosonde data over Yakutsk and Irkutsk were utilized as well. SSW event was modeled by specifying the temperature and density perturbations at the lower boundary of the GSM TIP model (80 km altitude). It was shown that by setting disturbances in the form of a stationary planetary perturbation s=1 at the lower boundary of the thermosphere, one could reproduce the negative electron density disturbances in the F region of ionosphere during SSW events. Our scenario for the 2009 SSW event in the GSM TIP allowed to obtain results which are in a qualitative agreement with the observation data. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.