Editors’ Highlights are summaries of recent papers by AGU’s journal editors.
Source: AGU Advances
During a geomagnetic storm, the ionosphere-thermosphere system undergoes severe disturbances, seriously affecting satellite orbits and radio propagation. The May 2024 superstorm was the most intense geomagnetic storm since October 2003. But, unlike 20 years ago when limited observations were available, China has now established a comprehensive ground-based observation network, known as the Meridian Project. This project aims to monitor the ionospheric weather over the Chinese sector.
The Sanya incoherent scatter radar, one of the critical infrastructures of this project, provides multiple parameter measurements in the upper atmosphere. Using these robust observations, Huang et al. [2025] find that unique ionospheric changes occurred in the upper atmosphere in response to this superstorm. Unique wavelike features appeared in total electron content network measurements in the observed area, alongside disturbances in meridional winds, including maximum velocities above 200 meters/second. Using this combination of observations and simulation using the TIEGCM model, the authors attribute the abnormal ionospheric changes observed to interactions between atmospheric gravity waves, penetration electric fields and the disturbance dynamo, lending understanding to the effects of future strong geomagnetic storms.
Citation: Huang, F., Lei, J., Yue, X., Li, Z., Zhang, N., Cai, Y., et al. (2025). Interplay of gravity waves and disturbance electric fields to the abnormal ionospheric variations during the 11 May 2024 superstorm. AGU Advances, 6, e2024AV001379. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024AV001379
—Alberto Montanari, Editor-in-Chief, AGU Advances
