We present ionospheric plasma conditions observed by the EISCAT radars in Tromsø and on Svalbard, covering 68°–81° geomagnetic latitude, during 6–8 September 2017. This is a period when X2.2 and X9.3 X‐ray flares occurred, two interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) arrived at the Earth accompanied by enhancements of MeV‐range energetic particle flux in both the solar wind (SEP event) and inner magnetosphere, and an AL < −2,000 substorm took place. (1) Both X flares caused enhancement of ionospheric electron density for about 10 min. The X9.3 flare also increased temperatures of both electrons and ions over 69°–75° geomagnetic latitude until the X‐ray flux decreased below the level of X‐class flares. However, the temperature was not enhanced after the previous X2.2 flare in the prenoon sector. (2) At around 75° geomagnetic latitude, the prenoon ion upflow flux slightly increased the day after the X9.3 flare, which is also after the first ICME and a SEP event, while no outstanding enhancement was found at the time of these X flares. (3) The upflow velocity sometimes decreased when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) turned southward. (4) Before the first ICME arrival after the SEP event under weak IMF with Bz ~0 nT, a substorm‐like expansion of the auroral arc signature took place without local geomagnetic signature near local midnight, while no notable change was observed after the ICME arrival. (5) AL reached <−2,000 nT only after the arrival of the second ICME with strongly southward IMF. Causality connections between the solar/solar wind event and the ionospheric responses remain unclear.

Intensity scintillations of cosmic radio sources are used to study astrophysical plasmas like the ionosphere, the solar wind, and the interstellar medium. Normally, these observations are relatively narrow band. With Low‐Frequency Array (LOFAR) technology at the Kilpisjärvi Atmospheric Imaging Receiver Array (KAIRA) station in northern Finland we have observed scintillations over a three‐octave bandwidth. “Parabolic arcs,” which were discovered in interstellar scintillations of pulsars, can provide precise estimates of the distance and velocity of the scattering plasma. Here we report the first observations of such arcs in the ionosphere and the first broadband observations of arcs anywhere, raising hopes that study of the phenomenon may similarly improve the analysis of ionospheric scintillations. These observations were made of the strong natural radio source Cygnus‐A and covered the entire 30–250 MHz band of KAIRA. Well‐defined parabolic arcs were seen early in the observations, before transit, and disappeared after transit although scintillations continued to be obvious during the entire observation. We show that this can be attributed to the structure of Cygnus‐A. Initial results from modeling these scintillation arcs are consistent with simultaneous ionospheric soundings taken with other instruments and indicate that scattering is most likely to be associated more with the topside ionosphere than the F region peak altitude. Further modeling and possible extension to interferometric observations, using international LOFAR stations, are discussed.