It is commonly believed that solar eclipses have a great impact on the ionosphere‐thermosphere (I‐T) system within the eclipse shadow, but little attention has been paid to the global response to these events. In this study, we investigate the global upper atmospheric responses to the recent Great American Solar Eclipse that occurred on 21 August 2017 using a high‐resolution coupled ionosphere‐thermosphere‐electrodynamics model. The simulation results show that the ionosphere and thermosphere response to the eclipse is not just local but global. Large‐scale traveling atmospheric disturbances (TADs), seen in the thermospheric temperature and winds, were triggered from the eclipse region and propagated in a southeast direction when the eclipse ended. A large total electron content (TEC) enhancement occurred over South America after the eclipse was over. The TEC enhancement was primarily the result of transport by the thermospheric wind perturbations associated with the eclipse‐induced TADs. The perturbations of TEC, neutral temperature, and winds exhibited asymmetric distributions with respect to the totality path during the solar eclipse. Furthermore, ionospheric electrodynamic processes also play an important role in the global responses of the I‐T system to the solar eclipse. Unlike the case of large‐scale TADs propagating from the eclipse region to other locations in the globe, the ionospheric electric fields and plasma drifts began to show significant perturbations even during the local pre‐eclipse period when local wind and temperature had not been perturbed. This is related to the instantaneous global response of the ionospheric current system to changes in the ionospheric conductivity and winds in the eclipse region.

Combined Thermosphere‐Ionosphere‐Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics (TIMED)/TIMED Doppler interferometer horizontal winds, Global Positioning System Total Electron Content maps, and Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate electron density profiles are utilized to study the westward zonal wavenumber 1 quasi‐6‐day planetary wave in both the neutral atmosphere and F region ionosphere under solar minimum conditions in 2009. It is found that the zonal (meridional) wind perturbations maximize (minimize) in the geographic equatorial mesosphere and lower thermosphere region and are in phase (out of phase) between hemispheres, which agrees well with both the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite/high‐resolution Doppler imager wind observations and (1, 1) Rossby normal mode. Analysis of the Total Electron Content maps and Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate electron density profiles shows that the F region ionosphere exhibits wave spectra and temporal variations that are consistent with those of the neutral atmosphere. Specifically, the 6‐day oscillation in electron density is the highest during 1200–1800 LT in the equatorial ionospheric anomaly region (~20° geomagnetic latitude), with a minimum amplitude at the equator, which agrees well with the F region fountain effect. At 300 km, the amplitude of the electron density oscillation reaches ~1.2 × 10 ⁴ cm ⁻³ , which accounts for ~14% of the background value. In addition, the F ₂ layer electron peak density and peak height also exhibit corresponding oscillations with amplitudes of ~9 × 10 ⁴ cm ⁻³ and ~12 km, respectively. The current work provides clear evidence for F region ionospheric responses to planetary waves in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere region.

The plasmasphere is located above the ionosphere with low-energy plasma, which is an important component of the solar-terrestrial space environment. As the link between the ionosphere and the magnetosphere, the plasmasphere plays an important role in the coupling process. Therefore, it is of great significance to study the electron content variation of the plasmasphere for the solar-terrestrial space environment. Nowadays, the topside global positioning system (GPS) observations on Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites provide a unique opportunity to estimate and study variations in the plasmasphere. In this paper, the plasmaspheric total electron content (PTEC) is estimated, and its long-term variations are studied from topside GPS observations onboard the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC). The PTEC in the daytime is higher than that in the nighttime, with the peak between 14:00 and 17:00 in the magnetic local time, while the minimum value of PTEC in the belt appears between 3:00 and 6:00 in the magnetic local time before sunrise. For seasonal variations, the PTEC is the highest in spring of the northern hemisphere and the lowest in summer of the northern hemisphere regardless of the state of the solar activity. The long-term variation in PTEC is further analyzed using 11-year COSMIC GPS observation data from 2007 to 2017. A high correlation between PTEC and the F10.7 indices is found. Particularly in the geomagnetic high-latitude region during the daytime, the correlation coefficient reaches 0.93. The worst case occurs during the nighttime in the geomagnetic middle-latitude region, but the correlation coefficient is still higher than 0.88. The long-term variations of plasmaspheric TEC are mainly related to the solar activity.

The solar quiet (Sq) ionospheric current variations exhibit spatial and temporal patterns that can be identified by the prevailing eigenmodes based on the empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis. In this study, the Sq current function over the American and European/African sectors are derived using ground magnetometer data from 2006 to 2019 based on the spherical harmonic analysis technique. Subsequently, we decomposed the Sq current function into eigenmodes by applying the EOF analysis, where the first three eigenmodes capture 96% of the overall Sq current variance. Additionally, these eigenmodes are utilized to model the Sq current function and compare its properties between the two longitudinal sectors. We observed that the EOF model could reconstruct the observed Sq current function with the first three eigenmodes in both longitudinal sectors. Moreover, the EOF model unveils a clear association of the Sq current function with several driven features, such as magnetic latitude, local time, season, and solar activity. Both longitudinal sectors had comparable Sq current patterns under varying solar activity, while their amplitudes varied. Besides, the newly developed model could reproduce a refined Sq current variability over the two longitudinal sectors as long as the observed Sq variations have sufficient duration. Our EOF model shows that the variations of the Sq current function with solar activity can be explained by the first three eigenmodes, which could be used as a basis for further numerical modeling of the Sq current variations.

Given the potential importance of solar quiet (Sq) ionospheric current in geomagnetic field modeling, it is vital to obtain accurate parameters characterizing its variations, particularly the spatial and temporal variations. In this paper, we derived the Sq current function based on the spherical harmonic analysis (SHA) technique using a 14‐year (2006–2019) quiet geomagnetic field record over the American sector. The empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis was then applied to deduce temporal and spatial variations of the Sq current. It is observed that the first EOF mode of the Sq current function is dominated by solar activity, while the second and third EOF modes exhibit annual and semiannual variations, respectively. Also, the artificial neural network (ANN) model of Sq current function was constructed to validate the EOF model predictions. While the Sq current intensity predicted by the ANN model is underestimated by 2.83%, the EOF model underpredicted the Sq current intensity by 1.92% relative to the observation. The root mean square error (RMSE) of the EOF model is 0.64 kA. This RMSE is about 79% smaller than that of the ANN model. In addition, both the EOF and ANN models capture the variation of the total Sq current (J_total) intensity with respect to solar activity. In principle, the EOF model had an optimal performance at nearly 98% accuracy, with the ANN model exhibiting almost the same degree of accuracy, which appears to be a reference point for ionospheric conditions when looking for space weather applications.