Recently several studies indicated possible deterioration of accuracy in the SuperDARN convection measurements at large distances (〉2 500 km). In this study, the SuperDARN-derived convection was compared with ion drift measurements given by the DMSP satellites, focused on SuperDARN far-range measurements, to investigate the above-mentioned problem. Two different procedures of SuperDARN convection estimation were applied. An overall reasonable agreement between two observation systems were found though individual points in some passes show significant differences. Besides, a tendency is also clear that the SuperDARN-derived velocities were slightly smaller than those of DMSP ion drift measurements. Potential factors contributing to the velocity differences were explained.
The global characteristics of the ionospheric storm and irregularities as well as propagation of TEC (total electron content) disturbances during the strong mag-netic storm occurring in November 2004 were investigated by using the data of the IGS network. For the response of the global ionospheric TEC to this strong mag-netic storm, the following features are noticeable: 1) the maximum of the iono-spheric storm phase occurred around the main phase maximum of the magnetic storm; 2) the TEC response in equatorial and low latitudes was more remarkable than that in mid-high latitudes; 3) as a whole, the storm phase in the northern hemisphere was mainly positive, and it was negative in the southern hemisphere; 4) during the whole magnetic storm from November 7 to 11, the locations where the maxima of the positive and negative ionospheric storm phases occurred were nearly invariant to the Sun at low and equatorial latitudes, i.e. the 24-h recurrence. Analyzing results of TEC rate and its standard deviation showed that the iono-spheric irregularities and disturbances in the global mainly occurred around the main phase maximum of the storm, and they distributed in a large longitudinal re-gion for both day and night in mid-high latitudes and they generated and developed only after the sunset, and lasted out to the midnight in equatorial and low latitudes. The disturbance propagation parameters were also estimated by using the wavelet reconstruction and cross-correlation technologies for a set of spaced stations in the Northern America.