Latitudinal and temporal variation of equatorial ionospheric irregularities determined from GPS scintillation observations

Abstract

Abstract. In this paper we investigate the spatial and temporal distribution of ionospheric irregularities in the South-East Asian longitude sector by analysing the scintillation of GPS signals received at ground based stations. The data used for this work were collected during 1998 to 2002 with our regional network of GPS based scintillation monitors .The aim of this analysis is to better understand the morphology and climatology of ionospheric irregularities in our region. Interesting differences between the north and south anomalies are noted when we examine the latitudinaltemporal variation of irregularity activity. We investigate the possible causes of these differences and note that variations in the irregularity seeding mechanism and in the background ionosphere at the two anomalies could be important.Phase screen diffraction theory is used to analyse our scintillation data and we note problems with this theory for raypaths with large off-zenith angles. The height of the phase screen is another important issue. We discuss the implications for models which rely on phase screen diffraction theory.

Analysis of scintillation recorded during the PRIS measurement campaign

“…As a conclusion, it is not obvious that a scintillation map should reproduce the same trends as a TEC map, and this example shows the contrary. The same issue has been addressed by Cervera and Thomas [2006] with similar observations.…”

Simultaneous observations of ionospheric irregularities in the African low-latitude region

“…With this approach, we can study irregularity structures in the order of kilometers. It is well known that the nonlinear development of a large spectrum of irregularities of different scale-sizes can be investigated by various observational techniques (Basu and Basu Su, 1981;Pi et al, 1997;Cervera and Thomas, 2006, and references therein). At GPS carrier frequencies, it is possible to probe plasma irregularities with scale-sizes of a few hundred meters.…”

Climatology characterization of equatorial plasma bubbles using GPS data

“…We used the combination of the dual-frequency carrier-phase and code delay of GPS observations to obtain an ionospheric observable related to the sTEC (Ciraolo et al 2007). The sTEC values were estimated from GPS observables obtained from RINEX files using the technique developed by Brunini & Azpilicueta (2009).…”

“…These approaches were accompanied by the use of scintillation data and by the increasing relevance of GPS-derived information. The joint use of both kinds of data enabled improvements in the knowledge of the spatial and temporal distributions of EPBs at regional scales (Cervera & Thomas 2006). This paper aims to present the climatology of EPBs for the period 1998-2008 at the global scale using worldwide data recorded at 67 IGS stations located around the geomagnetic equator.…”