Space weather has a variety of effects on the ionosphere - the electrically charged component of the Earth's upper atmosphere between 80 and 1000 km altitude.

Depending on the processes involved, space weather causes the density of the ionosphere to be enhanced, depleted, or sometimes structured into both enhancements and depletions. Understanding and forecasting these effects is of great importance, because a variety of radio applications and sectors are affected by the ionosphere. For example, the military and civil aviation sectors use both high-frequency signals, at frequencies between 3 and 30 MHz, and global navigation satellite systems, between ~1200 and 1600 MHz, for navigation. Both are sufficiently affected by the ionospheric medium that it has determined the system design and is a major day-to-day operational issue.

Using the expertise of Lancaster University researchers in the ray tracing of radio waves through the ionosphere and a state-of-the-art model of the lower (D-region) ionosphere, we are enhancing the UK Met Office's ability to specify and forecast the ionosphere in order to provide high-frequency communications products to the aviation industry.