Correlation between foEs and zonal winds over Rome, Okinawa and Townsville using Horizontal Wind Model (HWM14) during solar cycle 22

Abstract The relation between ionosonde critical frequency of ionospheric sporadic E-layer ( f o E s ) and disturbed zonal wind is studied over Okinawa (26.68°N, 128.15°E), Rome (41.98°N, 12.49°E) and Townsville (19.63°S, 146.8°E) during different solar activity years, 1987 (moderate), 1996 (low) & 2001 (high) (Okinawa and Townsville) and 1987 (moderate), 1995 (low) & 2000 (high) (Rome). The variation of monthly hourly medians of f o E s shows annual trend with maximum values in local summer. However, it does not show dependence on solar activity. The correlation is studied between median f o E s values and the zonal winds obtained from climatological Horizontal Wind Model (HWM14). The strong correlation coefficients obtained between the parameters suggest that HWM14 may be used as a proxy to predict the climatology of the sporadic layers. A more comprehensive study based upon the same procedure is planned in future.