The current work makes use of eight years of electron density data observed by the Swarm constellation to study the characteristics of the equatorial ionospheric single crest phenomenon recorded at the altitudes of these satellites. The features of single crests have been investigated at different altitudes and geomagnetic activity levels. Results showed that the occurrence rate of a single crest was not significantly different between the lower and higher satellite altitudes. The relationship between the occurrence of single crests and the Kp index has shown a dramatic enhancement at high level activities. In addition, the occurrence of single crest has dramatically enhanced with the strength of both the interplanetary electric field and the north-south interplanetary magnetic field. Also, irrespective of season, the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region has always shown a large occurrence of single crest events compared to other longitudes. In addition, the occurrence of the events is always larger during equinoxes than during summer and winter solstices. The significant occurrence of single crest recorded during both equinoxes and the maximum phase of the solar cycle (F10.7 index) and those observed over the SSA region, suggests an alignment between the strength of electron density and the occurrence rate of single crests.

Based on the observations of Ionospheric Bubble Index (IBI) data from the Swarm mission, the characteristics of plasma bubbles are investigated during different types of geomagnetic storms recorded from 2014 to 2020. The geometrical constellation of the Swarm mission enabled us to investigate the altitudinal profile of the IBIs during different activity levels in a statistical mean. Results show that the majority of IBIs associated with moderate storms are observed at low altitudes and the probability of observing IBIs at high altitudes (Swarm-B) increases with the increase in storm level. This is confirmed by observing the F2 layer peak height (hmF2) during super storm events at larger altitudes using COSMIC data. The maximum number of IBIs is recorded within the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) region with a long duration time and tends to increase only during dusk time. Both the large duration time and number of IBIs over the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) suggest that the gradient in the electron density and the depression in the magnetic field are the main factors controlling IBI events. Also, the IBIs at high altitudes are larger at sunset and at low altitudes pre-midnight. In addition, the occurrence of IBIs is always larger in the northern hemisphere than in the southern hemisphere irrespective of the type of storm, as well as during the summer months. Moreover, there is no correlation between the duration time of IBIs and both the altitudinal observation of the IBIs and the storm type. Seasonal occurrence of IBIs is larger during equinoxes and vice versa during solstices irrespective of both the type of storm and the altitude of the satellite. The large number of IBIs during equinoxes agrees with the previous studies, which expect that the large electron density is a developer of steeper . Large occurrences of super storm IBIs observed within the pre-midnight during summer and at sunset during equinoxes are a novel observation that needs further investigation. Also, the majority of IBIs are observed a few hours after geomagnetic substorms, which reflects the role of the Disturbance Dynamo Electric Field (DDEF) as a main driver of IBIs.

On 21 August 2017, during 16:49 UT and 20:02 UT period, a total solar eclipse started. The totality shadow occurred over the United States in time between ~17:15 UT and ~18:47 UT. When the solar radiation is blocked by the moon, observations of the ionospheric parameters will be important in the space weather community. Fortunately, during this eclipse, two Swarm satellites (A and C) flied at about 445 km through lunar penumbra at local noon of United States in the upper ionosphere. In this work, we investigate the effect of the solar eclipse on electron density, slant total electron content (STEC) and electron temperature using data from Swarm mission over United States. We use calibrated measurements of plasma density and electron temperature. Our results indicate that: (1) the electron density and STEC have a significant depletion associated with the eclipse; which could be due to dominance of dissociative recombination over photoionization caused by the reduction of ionizing extreme ultraviolet (EUV) radiation during the eclipse time (2) the electron temperature decreases, compared with a reference day, by up to ~150 K; which could be due to the decrease in photoelectron heating from reduced photoionization.