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PREFACE

The ionosphere is a layer within the atmosphere that extends from about 60 kilometers above the Earth’s surface to about 1,000 kilometers in altitude. It consists of charged particles (i.e., electrons and ions) due to ionization of neutrals by solar radiation and energetic particle precipitation from the magnetosphere.

Since its discovery more than 100 years ago, the ionosphere has become an active research area and our understanding of ionospheric dynamics continues to evolve due to advances in observational technologies and new capabilities in theory and numerical modeling.

Ionospheric dynamics are affected by many different forcings, including solar flares, geomagnetic storms, tides and waves from the lower atmosphere, as well as disturbances triggered by earthquakes and tsunamis. The ionosphere behaves very differently under different solar and geomagnetic conditions, and its variability has direct impacts on radio communication and satellite navigation system.

Although our knowledge of the ionosphere has greatly advanced in recent decades, many important aspects of ionospheric dynamics are still not well understood, especially during geomagnetic storms, because of the complexity of the coupled magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere system.

This book, divided into five parts, provides a comprehensive overview of global ionospheric research ranging from the polar cap to the equatorial region. Part 1 addresses magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling in the high-latitude ionosphere, ion outflow, and ionospheric convection in the polar cap and auroral zone. Part 2 concerns interhemispheric asymmetries, ionospheric structures such as large-scale storm enhanced density plumes, and meso- and small-scale structures in the subauroral and mid-latitude ionosphere. Part 3 focuses on the low-latitude ionosphere, including equatorial ionospheric electrodynamics, equatorial spread F, equatorial electrojet, and equatorial ionization anomaly. Part 4 covers global ionospheric processes such as penetration electric fields, magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling at middle and subauroral latitudes, sudden stratospheric warming impacts on the ionosphere, longitudinal dependence of ionospheric dynamics, and travelling ionospheric disturbances. Part 5 discusses ionospheric effects on HF wave propagation and satellite navigation, as well as ionospheric disturbances caused by earthquakes and tsunamis.

The chapters are written in the form of review articles, providing a coherent description of each topical area. Each chapter includes historical evolution, recent progress, latest results, current understanding, and future challenges of the specific topics. Theoretical analyses, numerical modelings, and observational results from ionospheric radars, satellites, and other space-borne and ground-based instruments are presented.

The book will serve as a useful reference for active researchers and scientists in the space science community, as well as for graduates and upper-level undergraduate students at universities, and engineers and environment officers/operators in government agencies who are interested in space weather applications.

Chaosong Huang Air Force Research Laboratory, Kirtland AFB, New Mexico, USA

Gang Lu National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, USA