Abstract:
Due to the absence of data for solar wind plasma parameters during the October 29, 1973
geomagnetic storm, the auroral electrojet (AE) index was employed for the study of the ionospheric
response to the storm. The available interplanetary magnetic field component, Bz
, and the low
latitude magnetic index, Dst, showed that the storm was moderate (Dst = -64nT, Bz = -5.8nT). The
analysis from the disturbances in ionospheric foF2 from October 29-31, 1973 showed
predominantly an enhancement (positive storm) at the mid and low latitude stations. In between
the time of storm (i.e. 14:00UT on 29 and 05:00UT on 30 October), the upper latitudes also
showed some degree of enhancement. This paper concluded that the reason for this positive
ionospheric storm across all latitudes could be injection of energy because of significant increase in
the AE index, which caused an uplift of the ionospheric layers to higher altitudes, where the
recombination rate was small. In addition, the paper attempted to confirm the argument that,
moderate magnetic storms are capable of generating ionospheric storms, which are of comparable
magnitude with those resulting from intense geomagnetic storms.
