The response time of the ionosphere to solar wind driving from the scintillation perspective.

The Ionospheric scintillation occurrence at low latitudes is a function of local time and occurs primarily after sunset, while at the high latitudes it is largely driven by coupling processes between the solar wind, magnetosphere, and the ionosphere. In order to predict Ionospheric dynamics which could potentially lead to scintillations in GNSS signals, it is important to know the response time of the magnetosphere-ionosphere (MI) system to various solar wind drivers. In this work, we have analyzed events over the last solar cycle where the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF)- Bz component was northward for at least two hours during the main or early recovery phase of the storm. A comparison of the various proposed magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling functions has been done for the selected set of events to categorize them according to the energy input into the MI system after the IMF-Bz northward turning. The onset of Ionospheric scintillations and ground magnetic perturbations was estimated for each of the coupling functions. The set of most favourable solar wind parameters and the response time for each level of disturbance is estimated. The estimated response times and the selected set of events are used as input and case studies for the Canadian High Arctic Scintillation Model (CHASM) respectively. Further, the space weather impacts of these events are investigated over high and low latitude ionosphere.