A Statistical Survey of F2 Layer Peak Properties in the Polar Cap Ionosphere Observed by RISR‐N

Abstract This study presents a statistical survey of radar observations of the F‐region ionosphere from the Resolute Bay Incoherent Scatter North station between 2009 and 2025. We present an algorithm to track the altitude and electron density of the F2 layer peak for each 1 min time step of data by fitting an Epstein Layer Model to the electron density profiles. The time series of and are compared to Empirical Canadian High Arctic Ionosphere Model estimations to detect lifted (L) events, high‐density (D) events, or lifted and high‐density (LD) events. The minimum length for event detection was 2 min. We then statistically analyze the background solar wind and geomagnetic conditions during L, D, and LD events. We observe that L events and D events have very different distributions. L events occur most frequently during early spring/late winter months. L events are observed most frequently during times of fast solar wind and high geomagnetic activity. These conditions are consistent with high speed stream driven storms. D events are observed most frequently during times of slow solar wind and are not correlated with geomagnetic activity. D events also have a strong correlation with southward interplanetary magnetic field. D events occur most frequently during winter months. L and D events have nearly disjoint seasonal distributions, which suggests that they are distinct ionospheric phenomena. LD events are rare but show a preference for solar maximum conditions, whereas L and D events did not have a strong relationship with .