Extreme Enhancements in GPS TEC on 8 and 10 November 2004

It is a mistaken impression that the midlatitude ionosphere was a very stable region with well-known morphology and physical mechanism. However, the large disturbances of midlatitude ionospheric contents in response to global thermospheric changes during geomagnetic storms are reported in recent studies using global GPS TEC map and space-born thermospheric UV images, and its importance get higher with the increasing application areas of space navigation systems and radio communication which are mostly used in the midlatitudes. Positive and negative storm phases are used to describe increase and decrease of ionospheric electron density. Negative storms result generally from the enhanced loss rate of electron density according to the neutral composition changes which are initiated by Joule heating in high-latitudes during geomagnetic storms. In contrast, positive ionospheric storms have not been well understood because of rare measurements to explain the mechanisms. The large enhancements of ground-based GPS TEC in Korea were observed on 8 and 10 November 2004. The positive ionospheric storm was continued except for dawn on 8 November, and its maximum value is ~65 TECU of ~3 times compared with the monthly mean TEC values. The other positive phase on 10 November begin to occur in day sector and lasted for more than 6 hours. The O/N2 ratios from GUVI/TIMED satellite show ~1.2 in northern hemisphere and ~0.3 in southern hemisphere of the northeast Asian sector on 8 and 10 November. We suggest the asymmetric features of O/N2 ratios in the Northeast Asian sector may play an important role in the measured GPS TEC enhancements in Korea because global thermospheric wind circulation can globally change the chemical composition during geomagnetic storms.