In December 1991, precipitation on the Glorieuses and Mayotte was more than 3 times the climatological mean and mean sunshine duration was less than 1.5h per day. The most likely explanation was low values of the Madden-Julian Oscillation index, which favours high rainfall. El Niño, eastward quasi-biennial oscillation and high solar activity may also have had an indirect effect. No effect of the Pinatubo volcanic eruption is indicated as the precipitation anomalies are only local.

Though high-latitude plasma convection has been monitored with a number of methods, more independent measurements are still warranted. In this study we introduce an automatic method to estimate along-track plasma drift velocity in the high-latitude ionosphere using the Swarm constellation. The obtained velocity is in qualitative agreement with Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) data. The method can be generalized to any satellite constellations in pearls-on-a-string configurations.

The high-latitude ionosphere is a dynamic region where particle precipitation leads to various phenomena including wave instability and turbulence. Anomalous echoes related to aurora are observed in ground-based radar observations of the ionosphere. These echoes indicate enhanced ion acoustic fluctuations. In this article, we show that the origin of the echo is located in or close to the region of particle precipitation and that the echo region itself is limited to hundreds of meters.

For the first time, the authors show that, by using the similarity theory, the same formula can be obtained for the eddy diffusion coefficient as the commonly used formula derived by J. Weinstock. Our results also explain the discrepancy between the large cooling rates calculated by the authors and the temperatures given by the MSIS-E-90 model.

The diurnal tide and its variability in the lower atmosphere over Chongyang (114.14ºE，29.53ºN) were studied based on the newly established Wuhan University VHF radar observations in the whole year of 2012. We find that the diurnal tide was the dominant tidal component and showed remarkable height and season variations, as well as dramatic short-term variability.

The present review describes a number of laboratory studies of low-frequency electrostatic drift wave turbulence together with related results obtained by instrumented spacecraft in the Earth's near and distant ionospheres. The summary emphasizes readily measurable quantities, such as the turbulent power spectra for the fluctuations in plasma density, potential and electric fields. A number of future studies are suggested in order to resolve some outstanding issues.

We compare the reported properties of oscillations in Saturn's outer plasma environment near the ~10.6 hour planetary rotation period, as observed in magnetic field and radio emission data obtained by the Cassini spacecraft. We highlight similarities and differences, and suggest possible reasons for the latter.

The 6.5-day traveling planetary wave is able to impact the ionosphere/thermosphere via a dissipation mechanism. Ionospheric TEC and thermosphere O/N2 exhibit an apparent decrease as the result of extra meridional circulation induced by 6.5-day wave dissipation. Our work suggests that the modulation of E-dynamo is not the unique pathway through which planetary waves substantially influence the IT system.

The expressions that determine the altitude and number density at peak of the OH* layer were derived. OH* number density in the vicinity of the OH* layer is directly proportional to the atomic oxygen concentration and inversely proportional to the power of temperature. The peak of the layer number density is anti-correlated with the height of the peak. Atomic oxygen is responsible for the vertical separation of sub-layers with different vibrational numbers, and for the distance between them.