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The intention in this paper is to investigate the form and dynamics of large-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (LS TIDs) of auroral origin. We have devised a technique for determining LS TID parameters using GPS arrays whose elements can be selected from a large set of GPS stations forming part of the international GPS network. The method was used to determine LS TID parameters during a strong magnetic storm of September 25, 1998. The NorthAmerican sector where many GPS stations are available, and also the time interval 00:00-06:00 UT characterized by a maximum value of the derivative Dst were used in the analysis. The study revealed that this period of time was concurrent with the formation of the main ionospheric trough (MIT) with a conspicuous southward wall in the range of geographic latitudes 50-60• and the front width of no less than 7500 km. The auroral disturbance-induced large-scale solitary wave with a duration of about 1 hour and the front width of at least 3700 km propagated in the equatorward direction to a distance of no less than 2000-3000 km with the mean velocity of about 300 m/s. The wave front behaved as if it 'curled' to the west in longitude where the local time was around noon. Going toward the local nighttime, the propagation direction progressively approximated an equatorward direction.

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Abstract. The temporal variations of the low latitude nighttime spread F (SF) observed by DPS-4 digisonde at low latitude Hainan station (geog. 19.5 • N, 109.1 • E, dip lat. 9.5 • N) during the declining solar cycle 23 from March 2002 to February 2008 are studied. The spread F measured by the digisonde were classified into four types, i.e., frequency SF (FSF), range SF (RSF), mixed SF (MSF), and strong range SF (SSF). The statistical results show that MSF and SSF are the outstanding irregularities in Hainan, MSF mainly occurs during summer and low solar activity years, whereas SSF mainly occurs during equinoxes and high solar activity years. The SSF has a diurnal peak before midnight and usually appears during 20:00-02:00 LT, whereas MSF peaks nearly or after midnight and occurs during 22:00-06:00 LT. The time of maximum occurrence of SSF is later in summer than in equinoxes and this time delay can be caused by the later reversal time of the E ×B drift in summer. The SunSpot Number (SSN) dependence of each type SF is different during different season. The FSF is independent of SSN during each season; RSF with SSN is positive relation during equinoxes and summer and is no relationship during the winter; MSF is significant dependence on SSN during the summer and winter, and does not relate to SSN during the equinoxes; SSF is clearly increasing with SSN during equinoxes and summer, while it is independent of SSN during the winter. The occurrence numbers of each type SF and total SF have the same trend, i.e., increasing as Kp increases from 0 to 1, and then decreasing as increasing Kp. The correlation with Kp is negative for RSF, MSF, SSF and total SF, but is vague for the FSF.

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