GPS scintillations and total electron content climatology in the southern low, middle and high latitude regions

In recent years, several groups have installed high-frequency sampling receivers in the southern middle and high latitude regions, to monitor ionospheric scintillations and the total electron content (TEC) changes. Taking advantage of the archive of continuous and systematic observations of the iono...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Annals of Geophysics
Main Authors: Luca Spogli, Lucilla Alfonsi, Pierre J. Cilliers, Emília Correia, Giorgiana De Franceschi, Cathryn N. Mitchell, Vincenzo Romano, Joe Kinrade, Miguel Angel Cabrera
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) 2013
Subjects:
Ionopsphere
GNSS
GPS
GLONASS
Ionospheric scintillation
Climatology
Space weather
Ionospheric irregularities
Meteorology. Climatology
QC851-999
Geophysics. Cosmic physics
QC801-809
Antarc*
Antarctica
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.4401/ag-6240
https://doaj.org/article/090150d30c0e4abab1c16fbf6aef0302
Description
Summary:In recent years, several groups have installed high-frequency sampling receivers in the southern middle and high latitude regions, to monitor ionospheric scintillations and the total electron content (TEC) changes. Taking advantage of the archive of continuous and systematic observations of the ionosphere on L-band by means of signals from the Global Positioning System (GPS), we present the first attempt at ionospheric scintillation and TEC mapping from Latin America to Antarctica. The climatology of the area considered is derived through Ground-Based Scintillation Climatology, a method that can identify ionospheric sectors in which scintillations are more likely to occur. This study also introduces the novel ionospheric scintillation 'hot-spot' analysis. This analysis first identifies the crucial areas of the ionosphere in terms of enhanced probability of scintillation occurrence, and then it studies the seasonal variation of the main scintillation and TEC-related parameters. The results produced by this sophisticated analysis give significant indications of the spatial/ temporal recurrences of plasma irregularities, which contributes to the extending of current knowledge of the mechanisms that cause scintillations, and consequently to the development of efficient tools to forecast space-weather-related ionospheric events.

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