Abstract The sporadic E (Es) layer, a key manifestation of ionosphere‐neutral atmosphere coupling, is highly sensitive to geomagnetic storms. Using more than 25,000 daily radio occultation profiles from the Tianmu‐1 and COSMIC‐2 constellations, this study investigates the global response of the Es layer to the May 2024 storm. Observations reveal that the storm produced globally extensive disturbances in the Es region, exhibiting distinct latitudinal, longitudinal, and storm‐phase dependences. During the main phase, the peak Es‐layer intensity (EsI) exceeded four times the quiet‐time level at high latitudes, and the Es‐layer height (EsH) rose by as much as 20 km. Simultaneously, EsI at mid and low latitudes showed depletions exceeding 50%. During the recovery phase, wave‐like equatorward propagations of enhanced EsI and elevated EsH were observed in the Southern Hemisphere, primarily over the Southeast Pacific sector. Nighttime co‐occurrence rates of Es‐ and F‐region irregularities increased by a factor of four, suggesting that F‐region ionospheric perturbations may also contribute to Es‐layer generation during the recovery phase. These findings provide observational evidence of the global impact of a G5‐class geomagnetic storm on the Es layer, offering valuable insights for the development and validation of models that predict Es‐layer behavior.
Guo et al. (Sun,) studied this question.