Multi-station observation of ionospheric irregularities over South Africa during strong geomagnetic storms
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Date
2013
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Advances in Space Research
Abstract
This paper presents results pertaining to the response of the mid-latitude ionosphere to strong geomagnetic storms that occurred from
31 March to 02 April 2001 and 07–09 September 2002. The results are based on (i) Global Positioning Systems (GPSs) derived total
electron content (TEC) variations accompanying the storm, (ii) ionosonde measurements of the ionospheric electrodynamic response
towards the storms and (iii) effect of storm induced travelling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) on GPS derived TEC. Ionospheric data
comprising of ionospheric TEC obtained from GPS measurements, ionograms, solar wind data obtained from Advanced Composition
Explorer (ACE) and magnetic data from ground based magnetometers were used in this study. Storm induced features in vertical TEC
(VTEC) have been obtained and compared with the mean VTEC of quiet days. The response of the mid-latitude ionosphere during the
two storm periods examined may be characterised in terms of increased or decreased level of VTEC, wave-like structures in VTEC perturbation
and sudden enhancement in hmF2 and h0F. The study reveals both positive and negative ionospheric storm effects on the ionosphere
over South Africa during the two strong storm conditions. These ionospheric features have been mainly attributed to the
travelling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) as the driving mechanism for the irregularities causing the perturbations observed. TEC perturbations
due to the irregularities encountered by the satellites were observed on satellites with pseudo random numbers (PRNs) 15, 17,
18 and 23 between 17:00 and 23:00 UT on 07 September 2002.
Description
Keywords
Mid-latitude spread F, TEC variability, TEC perturbation, Ionospheric irregularities
Citation
Amabayo, E. B., & Pierre, J. C. (2013). Multi-station observation of ionospheric irregularities over South Africa during strong geomagnetic storms. Advances in Space Research, 51(5), 754-771. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2012.10.015