Night-time light ion transition height behaviour over the Kharkiv (50°N, 36°E) IS radar during the equinoxes of 2006–2010

•Extremely low location of upper transition height was observed during 2006–2010.•We found the surprising latitudinal dependence of upper transition height.•Observed H+ density was significantly increased.•The reasons are reduced neutral wind at night and higher neutral hydrogen density.•Changes in atmosphere could be caused by weaker than usual magnetic activity.

This research investigates anomalous nighttime ion density behaviour over the Kharkiv, Ukraine incoherent scatter radar (49.6° N, 36.3° E, 45.3° inv) during the equinoxes of 2006–2010. The observations show that the altitude of the transition from O+ to lighter ions was much lower than empirical and physical models predict. The standard physical model produces very good agreement for the O+ densities but underestimates the H+ densities by a factor of 2 in March 2006 and a factor of 3 in March 2009. The anomalously low transition height is a result of similar lowering of the ionospheric peak height and also of significantly increased H+ density. The lower ionospheric peak height may be caused by weaker nighttime neutral winds. The calculations indicate that the higher measured topside ionosphere H+ densities are most likely due to higher neutral hydrogen densities. Both factors could be the result of weaker than usual magnetic activity, which would reduce the energy input to high latitudes. Prolonged low activity periods could cause a global redistribution of hydrogen and also allow more neutral hydrogen to settle down from the exosphere into the mid-latitude ionosphere. The finding of the need for higher H densities agrees well with recent H-alpha airglow measurements and it is important for accurate modelling of plasmasphere refilling rates and night-time NmF2 values.