Ionospheric-Thermospheric Responses in South America to the August 2018 Geomagnetic Storm Based on Multiple Observations

The ionospheric storm time responses during August 2018 are investigated over South American region using multiple observables, for example, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) derived vertical total electron content (VTEC) from International GNSS Service, magnetic field data, geomagnetic indices, global ionospheric maps, thermospheric mass density (TMD), and [O/N 2 ] ratio measurement. Strong-ionospheric and upper-atmospheric disturbances affected the ionospheric variables with long duration during the storm recovery phase and following after. First, daytime VTEC (9:00-20:00 UT) presented variations of >15 TECU during days 25 to 30 of August 2018 in low and middle latitudes of South America, this after sudden storm commencement (SSC). Furthermore, nighttime (21:00-24:00 and 00:00-05:00 UT) VTEC presented low values (5