Driven by the objective of earthquake disaster prevention and mitigation, China launched the Zhangheng mission to build a stereoscopic earthquake monitoring system from the lithosphere to space. This report briefly presents the possible seismic ionospheric disturbances recorded by the first probe of the Zhangheng mission, which is known as the China-Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES). The routine data preprocessing and seismo-ionospheric information analysis methods are briefly introduced. The possible seismo-ionospheric disturbances that appeared during the strong shallow earthquakes (with a magnitude over 7 and a depth shallower than 30 km) are analyzed by using CSES and other multi-source data. Investigating seismo-ionospheric mechanisms requires multidisciplinary knowledge involving geophysics, atmosphere/ionosphere physics, geochemistry/atmospheric chemistry, etc. We state that the results from the CSES scientific application center are preliminary, calling for international scientists to contribute to the seismo-ionospheric perturbation phenomena, which is one of the most challenging scientific problems.

This study reports the temporal and spatial distributions of the extremely/very low frequency (ELF/VLF) wave activities and the energetic electron fluxes in the ionosphere during an intense storm (geomagnetic activity index Dst of approximately −174 nT) that occurred on 26 August 2018, based on the observations by a set of detectors onboard the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES). A good correlation of the ionospheric ELF/VLF wave activities with energetic electron precipitations during the various storm evolution phases was revealed. The strongest ELF/VLF emissions at a broad frequency band extending up to 20 kHz occurred from the near-end main phase to the early recovery phase of the storm, while the wave activities mainly appeared at the frequency range below 6 kHz during other phases. Variations in the precipitating fluxes were also spotted in correspondence with changing geomagnetic activity, with the max values primarily appearing outside of the plasmapause during active conditions. The energetic electrons at energies below 1.5 MeV got strong enhancements during the whole storm time on both the day and night side. Examinations of the half-orbit data showed that under the quiet condition, the CSES was able to depict the outer/inner radiation belt as well as the slot region well, whereas under disturbed conditions, such regions became less sharply defined. The regions poleward from geomagnetic latitudes over 50° were found to host the most robust electron precipitation regardless of the quiet or active conditions, and in the equatorward regions below 30°, flux enhancements were mainly observed during storm time and only occasionally in quiet time. The nightside ionosphere also showed remarkable temporal variability along with the storm evolution process but with relatively weaker wave activities and similar level of fluxes enhancement compared to the ones in the dayside ionosphere. The ELF/VLF whistler-mode waves recorded by the CSES mainly included structure-less VLF waves, structured VLF quasi-periodic emissions, and structure-less ELF hiss waves. A wave vector analysis showed that during storm time, these ELF/VLF whistler-mode waves obliquely propagated, mostly likely from the radiation belt toward the Earth direction. We suggest that energetic electrons in the high latitude ionosphere are most likely transported from the outer radiation belt as a consequence of their interactions with ELF/VLF waves.

The occurrence of space weather events, notably geomagnetic storms driven by various solar wind structures, can significantly alter Earth’s electromagnetic environment. In this study, we examined the interplanetary origins and statistical distribution of 384 geomagnetic storms ($Ds{t}_{min} \le$ −50 nT) that occurred from September 1996 to December 2023. We statistically analyzed the correlations between storm intensity and solar wind parameters (SWPs) across different subsets. The results indicate that (1) the solar activity level, indicated by the sunspot number (SSN), and the number of geomagnetic storms during the first four years of the 25th solar cycle were intermediate, compared to the first four years of the 23rd and 24th solar cycles. Specifically, ICME-related structures caused 80% of the strong storms ($Ds{t}_{min} \le$ −100 nT) and 34% of the moderate storms (−100 nT < $Ds{t}_{min} \le$ −50 nT) from 2020 to 2023. (2) The storm intensity correlated with the peak and/or time-integral values of the southward interplanetary magnetic field (IMF $B_s$), the dawn–dusk electric field ($E_y$), the Akasofu’s function ($\epsilon$), and dynamic pressure ($P_{sw}$) to varying extents. Strong storms exhibited higher correlation levels than moderate ones and ICME-related storms showed larger correlation levels compared to those driven by other sources. (3) Compared with the storms from 1996-09 to 2000-08, the storms that occurred from 2020 to 2023 had lower correlations with the peak values of the IMF $B_s$ and $E_y$ but higher correlations with the peak value of $\epsilon$ and the time-integral values of the IMF $B_s$, $E_y$, $P_{sw}$, and $\epsilon$. (4) Among the 174 events that featured continuous southward IMF during the storm’s main phase, the duration of southward IMF during about 66.7% of moderate storms and 51.5% of strong storms were less than 13 h. Continuous southward IMF resulted in more direct and efficient energy coupling, enhancing the correlation between the peak values of SWPs and storm intensity but weakening the relationships with the time-integral values of SWPs. Notably, when the southward IMF persisted for a longer duration (e.g., ∆t > 13 h), the continuous energy input further enhanced correlations with both peak and integral values of SWPs, leading to stronger overall correlations with storm intensity. This analysis sheds light on the intricate relationships between geomagnetic storms and their solar wind drivers, emphasizing the significant influence of ICME-related structures and the duration of southward IMF on storm intensity.

Driven by the scientific objective of geophysical field detection and natural hazard monitoring from space, China launched an electromagnetic satellite, which is known as the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite (CSES-01), on 2 February 2018, into a circular sun-synchronous orbit with an altitude of about 507 km in the ionosphere. The CSES-01 has been in orbit for over 6 years, successfully exceeding its designed 5-year lifespan, and will continually operate as long as possible. A second identical successor (CSES-02) will be launched in December 2024 in the same orbit space. The ionosphere is a highly dynamic and complicated system, and it is necessary to comprehensively understand the electromagnetic environment and the physical effects caused by various disturbance sources. The motivation of this report is to introduce the typical electromagnetic waves, mainly in the ELF/VLF band (i.e., ~100 Hz to 25 kHz), recorded by the CSES-01 in order to call the international community for deep research on EM wave activities and geophysical sphere coupling mechanisms. The wave spectral properties and the wave propagation parameters of those typical EM wave activities in the upper ionosphere are demonstrated in this study based on wave vector analysis using the singular value decomposition (SVD) method. The analysis shows that those typical and common natural EM waves in the upper ionosphere mainly include the ionospheric hiss and proton whistlers in the ELF band (below 1 kHz), the quasiperiodic (QP) emissions, magnetospheric line radiations (MLR), the falling-tone lightning whistlers, and V-shaped streaks in the ELF/VLF band (below 20 kHz). The typical artificial EM waves in the ELF/VLF band, such as power line harmonic radiation (PLHR) and radio waves in the VLF band, are also well recorded in the ionosphere.

The ionospheric quasi-periodic wave is a type of typical and common electromagnetic wave phenomenon occurring in extremely low-frequency (ELF) and very low-frequency ranges (VLF). These emissions propagate in a distinct whistler-wave mode, with varying periodic modulations of the wave intensity over time scales from several seconds to a few minutes. We developed an automatic detection model for the QP waves in the ELF band recorded by the China Seismo-Electromagnetic Satellite. Based on the 827 QP wave events, which were collected through visual screening from the electromagnetic field observations, an automatic detection model based on the Transformer architecture was built. This model, comprising 34.27 million parameters, was trained and evaluated. It achieved mean average precision of 92.3% on the validation dataset, operating at a frame rate of 39.3 frames per second. Notably, after incorporating the proton cyclotron frequency constraint, the model displayed promising performance. Its lightweight design facilitates easy deployment on satellite equipment, significantly enhancing the feasibility of on-board detection.