This special issue is the outcome of the 14th International Symposium on Equatorial Aeronomy (ISEA) on aeronomy from high to low latitudes, primarily focused on its longitude and hemispheric dependence, including the impact of waves propagating from the lower atmosphere. The 14th ISEA conference was held in Africa as a means of focusing attention on an extensive geographic region where observations are critically needed to address some of the fundamental questions of the physical processes driving the ionosphere locally and globally. The fundamental theme of the special issue refers to the physics and mechanisms behind the connection of high- to low-latitude aeronomy and its longitudinal and hemispheric dependencies as well as the impact of the lower atmosphere on the connection between tropospheric weather and ionospheric aeronomy. Papers within the scope of these fundamental scientific objectives are welcome for this special issue. The compilation of papers from the conference special issue is expected to provide a clear description of the fundamental physics mentioned above, which will be of value to the upper atmosphere scientific community in general and to the ongoing global magnetosphere–ionosphere–thermosphere (MIT) modeling effort in particular.

The special issue on the 14th International Symposium on Equatorial Aeronomy includes articles from six science themes that were discussed at the conference in 2015. These include (1) magnetosphere–ionosphere–thermosphere coupling impact at low and mid-latitude, (2) longitudinal dependence of equatorial electrodynamics and storm-enhanced density, (3) ionospheric irregularities and scintillations, (4) new results from recently deployed instrumentation, (5) equatorial aeronomy related to atmosphere–ionosphere coupling, and (6) future opportunities using upcoming new mission and planned ground-based instrumentation.

A number of articles relating to each science theme are expected to be submitted to this special issue; these will describe details of the physics behind each phenomenon that will help to solve the complexity of the MIT system. Since this special issue is an outcome of the research presented at the 14th ISEA conference held in Africa for the first time in four decades, it will further provide great opportunities and motivations to African scientists to communicate their research results with the international community using this special issue as a vehicle. This will spark significant interest in space science education and research throughout Africa and globally.

This special issue will be useful to both active researchers and advanced graduate students in the field of physics, geophysics and engineering, especially those who are keen to acquire a global understanding of ionospheric aeronomy and want to take the global modeling effort one step forward by including observational information from all longitudinal sectors across the globe.