Disturbances of Ozone Layer and Radio Wave Absorption in D-Region of Ionosphere of the Earth During Solar Proton Event: Simulations with СHARM-I Model

As it is well known [1], the high-energy solar particles (mainly solar protons), with an energy of several to 500 MeV, enter into the Earth’s stratosphere and mesosphere only in polar regions. For the first time the sharp decrease of the ozone and ion content in e stratosphere was detected on board the American Nimbus-4 satellite in course of one of the strongest flares on the Sun (August 4, 1972) [2]. As the theoretical analysis has shown, the highenergy particles intrusion in polar atmosphere produced oxides of nitrogen (NOx), hydrogen (HOx), and some ions, which destroy ozone in catalytic chemical cycles and increases electron density in polar region. Important steps were made with satellite missions NASA UARS (with HALOE instrument) and European ENVISAT (with MIPAS instrument). Basing on the ENVISAT measurements of ozone and other small gas components, the international project HEPPA (High Energy Particle Precipitation in the Atmosphere) was arranged [3]. This project involved 10 research groups including Russian teams from the Central Aerological Observatory (CAO, Moscow). As a result, the model computations were fulfilled which have demonstrated the well correspondence with data of satellite measurements during the solar flare in October 2003.