Secular variation and fluctuation of GPS Total Electron Content over Antarctica

Abstract The total electron content (TEC) is an important parameters in the Earth's ionosphere, related to various space weather and solar activities. However, understanding of the complex ionospheric environments is still a challenge due to the lack of direct observations, particularly in the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
Main Authors: Jin, Rui, Jin, Shuanggen
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2012
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1743921312017139
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S1743921312017139
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Summary:Abstract The total electron content (TEC) is an important parameters in the Earth's ionosphere, related to various space weather and solar activities. However, understanding of the complex ionospheric environments is still a challenge due to the lack of direct observations, particularly in the polar areas, e.g., Antarctica. Now the Global Positioning System (GPS) can be used to retrieve total electron content (TEC) from dual-frequency observations. The continuous GPS observations in Antarctica provide a good opportunity to investigate ionospheric climatology. In this paper, the long-term variations and fluctuations of TEC over Antarctica are investigated from CODE global ionospheric maps (GIM) with a resolution of 2.5°×5° every two hours since 1998. The analysis shows significant seasonal and secular variations in the GPS TEC. Furthermore, the effects of TEC fluctuations are discussed.