In this study, we present the comparison between an auroral model and EISCAT radar electron densities during pulsating aurorae. We test whether an overpassing satellite measurement of the average energy spectrum is a reasonable estimate for pulsating aurora electron precipitation. When patchy pulsating aurora is dominant in the morning sector, the overpass-averaged spectrum is found to be a reasonable estimate – but not when there is a mix of pulsating aurora types in the post-midnight sector.

About 200 nights of substorm activity have been analysed for their magnetic disturbance magnitude and the level of cosmic radio noise absorption. We show that substorms with a single expansion phase have limited lifetimes and spatial extents. Starting from magnetically quiet conditions, the strongest absorption occurs after 1 to 2 nights of substorm activity. This prolonged activity is thus required to accelerate particles to energies, which may affect the atmospheric chemistry.

In this study, we present the ionization level from EISCAT radar experiments and cosmic noise absorption level from KAIRA riometer observations during pulsating auroras. We found thick layers of ionization that reach down to 70 km (harder precipitation) and higher cosmic noise absorption during patchy pulsating aurora than during amorphous pulsating and patchy auroras.

This study concerns postmidnight ionospheric irregularities observed during low solar activity conditions. We analyze data from digisondes and optical imaging systems located in an equatorial region over Brazil. The results show that they occur under unfavorable and unexpected conditions. This work can be useful for space weather forecasting during low solar activity.

The novelty of this paper lies in the fact that it addresses the thermosphere–ionosphere coupling in a midlatitude site in north Africa. We have used Fabry–Perot measurements of thermospheric winds and wide-angle camera detection of ionospheric structures at an altitude of about 250 km. We have also used GPS data to extract the TEC over the studied area. We have focused our study on the 27 February geomagnetic storm.

For subauroral polarization streams (SAPS) commencing at different universal times (UT), the strongest westward neutral winds exhibit large variations in amplitudes. The effect of a sine-wave oscillation of SAPS on the neutral wind also exhibits UT variations in association with the solar illumination. The reduction in the electron density and enhancement in the air mass density are strongest when the maximum solar illumination collocates with the SAPS.

This article presents characteristics of periodic waves observed in the thermosphere from airglow images collected in the Northeast of Brazil. Using simultaneous measurements of the background wind in the airglow emission altitudes, it was possible to estimate the intrinsic parameters and the role of the wind in the propagation of the waves into the thermosphere. An anisotropy in the propagation direction of the waves was observed and it could be explained by the wind filtering process.

Measurements of equatorial thermospheric winds obtained from an optical instrument called a Fabry–Perot interferometer in Ethiopia show a significance difference as compared with other longitudinal sectors. The zonal wind in this sector is small and shows a gradual decrease through out the night. Application of climatological wind and temperature models shows good agreement with the observations over Ethiopia.

we present the first multi-year results of the climatology of horizontal winds obtained during a period of 26 months. We compare the observed climatologies of neutral winds to that provided by the recently updated Horizontal Wind Model (HWM14) in order to validate that model's predictions of the thermospheric wind patterns over the eastern portion of Africa. HWM14 generally compares well with the horizontal winds, but significant magnitude and phase differences remain in certain seasons.

The Global Ionosphere Thermosphere Model has been validated against flight data. The validation shows a linear dependency of the neutral density values with respect to the solar activity. In particular, the thermosphere model shows an over-predicting or under-predicting behaviour under high or low solar activity respectively. The reasons for such behaviour can be attributed to an erroneous implementation of the chemical processes or the gas transport properties in the model.