Severe Weather-Generated Acoustic and Gravity Wave Impacts on the Ionosphere: A Model-Guided Case Study

Acoustic and gravity waves (AGWs) generated by tropospheric weather are known sources of fluctuations in the ionosphere—traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs). Despite their importance, the effects of AGWs on the ionosphere, including associated energy and momentum deposition, remain poorly quantified. To address this gap, we present our first three-dimensional numerical simulations of coupled atmosphere-ionosphere dynamics during a typical severe terrestrial weather episode over the continental United States in May 2017. Using the nonlinear compressible models MAGIC and GEMINI, we reproduced many of the salient features of AGW-driven TIDs in slant total electron content. Simulation results reveal that although AGW-TID amplitudes reach only $\sim$0.35 TECu ($\sim$2–3$\%$ of absolute vTEC), AGWs induce substantial ionospheric fluctuations, up to 70 K in ion and 120 K in electron temperatures ($\sim$10–16$\%$ of ambient state), as well as $\sim 10\%$ in electron density at 100–300 km altitudes. Furthermore, long-period AGW impacts (lasting several hours), continuously generated by the evolving weather system, result in significant redistribution of plasma and modification of electron density ambient state by more than $\sim 20\%$ in the E and bottom F regions of the ionosphere. These modifications can plausibly affect various communication and navigation system applications, highlighting the need to incorporate AGW effects into space weather forecasts.