Ionospheric physics

In Ionospheric physics we study the near-Earth geospace with focus on the processes that affect the ionosphere within the Arctic region. Ionosphere is the ionized upper atmosphere between 70 and 1000 km altitude and it can be explored by instruments such as the international EISCAT radars and ESA’s Swarm satellites. Our aim is to understand how space weather events, such as solar wind high-speed streams and coronal mass ejections from the Sun affect the ionosphere. These events not only produce beautiful Northern lights, but also affect HF radio wave propagation and GNSS navigation.

Research group information

Unit and faculty

Space Physics and Astronomy

Faculty of Science

Contact information

Research group leader

Professor

Anita Aikio

Researchers

Senior research fellows

Lecturers

Research group description

The Ionospheric Physics research group studies the Earth’s ionosphere-thermosphere (I-T) region and how space weather events affect the I-T system. This research is becoming increasingly timely as the importance of very low-Earth-orbits (VLEO) grows with rapidly increasing number of new satellite launches into VLEO. Ionospheric phenomena affect also HF radio propagation, GNSS navigation and positioning and may cause geomagnetically induced currents affecting power transmission lines. The group is a partner in the Space Resilience Center of Excellence (2026-2033) funded by Research Council of Finland (RCF) and led by University of Helsinki. Other funding sources include ESA, EU and the Kvantum Institute of University of Oulu.

The overarching goal of the group is to study how geomagnetic storms affect the I-T environment by using observations and modelling. One of the most important research infrastructures is the international EISCAT_3D radar facility, with stations distributed in Norway, Sweden and Finland. This ESFRI Landmark infrastructure will be the world-leading facility of its kind providing volumetric observations of the high-latitude ionosphere and will replace the current EISCAT radars. In addition, several other ground-based equipment such as all-sky cameras, magnetometers, Fabry-Perot interferometers, riometers etc. are utilized, which are operated by the Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory (SGO), the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), and our international collaborators. Satellite missions, e.g., ESA’s SWARM and other (V)LEO missions also play an important role in the research.