Ionospheric effects of magnetospheric and thermospheric disturbances on March 17–19, 2015

Using vertical and oblique radio-sounding data, we analyze the ionospheric and thermospheric disturbances during the magnetic storm that occurred in northeastern Russia on March 17–19, 2015. We consider the heliospheric sources that induced the magnetic storm. During the main and early recovery phases, the midlatitude stations are characterized by extremely low values of electron density at the F 2 layer maximum. Using oblique sounding data, we recorded signals that propagated outside the great circle arc. In evening and night hours, no radio signals were found to pass along the Norilsk–Irkutsk and Magadan–Irkutsk paths. The observed ionospheric effects are shown to be caused by a sharp shift of the boundaries of the main ionospheric trough to the invariant latitude 46° N during the main phase of the magnetic storm. The negative ionospheric disturbance during the recovery phase of the storm, which was associated with significant variations in the composition of the neutral atmosphere, led to a change in the mode composition of received radio signals and a decline in observed maximal frequencies in daytime hours of March 18, 2015 by more than 2 times.