The 6 September 2017 X-Class Solar Flares and Their Impacts on the Ionosphere, GNSS, and HF Radio Wave Propagation

Abstract

On 6 September 2017, the Sun emitted two significant solar flares (SFs). The first SF, classified X2.2, peaked at 09:10 UT. The second one, X9.3, which is the most intensive SF in the current solar cycle, peaked at 12:02 UT and was accompanied by solar radio emission. In this work, we study ionospheric response to the two X-class SFs and their impact on the Global Navigation Satellite Systems and high-frequency (HF) propagation. In the ionospheric absolute vertical total electron content (TEC), the X2.2 SF caused an overall increase of 2–4 TECU on the dayside. The X9.3 SF produced a sudden increase of ~8–10 TECU at midlatitudes and of ~15–16 TECU enhancement at low latitudes. These vertical TEC enhancements lasted longer than the duration of the EUV emission. In TEC variations within 2–20 min range, the two SFs provoked sudden increases of ~0.2 TECU and 1.3 TECU. Variations in TEC from geostationary and GPS/GLONASS satellites show similar results with TEC derivative of ~1.3–1.7 TECU/min for X9.3 and 0.18–0.24 TECU/min for X2.2 in the subsolar region. Further, analysis of the impact of the two SFs on the Global Navigation Satellite Systems-based navigation showed that the SF did not cause losses-of-lock in the GPS, GLONASS, or Galileo systems, while the positioning error increased by ~3 times in GPS precise point positioning solution. The two X-class SFs had an impact on HF radio wave propagation causing blackouts at <30 MHz in the subsolar region and <15 MHz in the postmidday sector.