Short-period variability in the ionosphere and the stratosphere related to winter jet stream

Abstract

In the study, we carried out a joint analysis of the spatio-temporal dynamics of ionospheric and stratospheric short-period variability. We analyze the periods of winters of 2008–2009, 2012–2013, and 2018–2019, when strong midwinter sudden stratospheric warmings (SSW) occurred. During quiet winter periods, the stratospheric variability index is shown to be increased at a limited latitudinal interval of 40-65°N. Under SSW condition, the generation of disturbances in the stratosphere stops and a decrease in the stratosphere disturbance index appears. The index keeps low values for up to a month. The latitudinal-temporal distributions of the ionospheric TEC variability index vrTEC also show similar dynamics. The level of ionospheric variability decreases after the SSW onset in the stratosphere. The decrease in the short-period ionospheric variability can be explained by reduction of wave generation in the stratosphere, associated with the destruction of the jet stream during SSW periods.