Studies of Trends in the Upper Atmosphere for Improving Diagnosis and Forecasts in the Helio–Geophysical Service of the State Committee on Hydrometeorology

A brief review of the current state of studies of long-term trends in the middle and upper atmosphere and ionosphere is presented. It is shown that the present trends in the density and temperature of the upper atmosphere and parameters of the ionospheric layers may lead to changes in the aforementioned spheres. It would be necessary to take into account these trends in applied problems related to planning space vehicle orbits, propagation of radio waves, measurements at low-orbiting satellites, and so on. It is emphasized that the Helio–Geophysical Service of the State Committee of Hydrometeorology, which supplies customers with information on the state of the upper atmosphere, ionosphere, and near-Earth space, should develop information products related to possible changes in atmospheric and ionospheric parameters caused by the presence of the long-term trends.