Longitudinal Evolution of Storm-Enhanced Densities: A Case Study

Due to the limitations on observational data, most storm-enhanced density (SED) studies have focused on the North American sector. The complete picture of the longitudinal evolution of SEDs is still not clear. In this study, we investigated the dynamic evolution of SEDs from the European sector to the North American sector during a geomagnetic storm that occurred on the 15 July 2012, the main phase of which lasted nearly 30 h, maintaining the stable interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and solar wind input conditions. Multiple data sets were analyzed, including convection data from the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN), total electron contents (TECs) from the Madrigal database, plasma data from the Millstone Hill incoherent scatter radar (MHISR), solar wind and geomagnetic indices from OMNIWeb, and regional auroral electrojet indices from SuperMAG. The observations showed that the positions of SEDs shifted from local noon over the European sector towards dusk over the American sector and simultaneously moved to lower latitudes. The peak values of SED TECs were found to be greater in the European sector and to decrease with universal time. A double SED phenomenon appeared in the North American sector, which is the first of its kind to be reported. Further analysis showed that the temporal and spatial changes in the SEDs were associated with the eastward auroral electrojet.