C/NOFS, COSMIC and GNSS Observations of Plasma Irregularity During the Evening and Nighttimes in East African Sector

Abstract

AbstractIn this paper, a comprehensive view of the evening and nighttime ionospheric irregularities using Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS), Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC), and Global Navigation Satellite System GPS satellites were carried out over the east African region during June and September 2014. The strength of the pre‐reversal enhancement measured by C/NOFS during June and September shows a direct relationship with the mean rate of change of TEC index observation for respective months at both ADIS and BDMT GPS‐sites in Ethiopia. Simultaneous measurements of C/NOFS ion density and Scintillation Networks and Decision Aid dedicated scintillation show strong and weak ionospheric irregularities during September and June, respectively. Most importantly C/NOFS has detected the deep plasma irregularities in the local time range of 20:00–21:00. A significant decrease in ion density within the plasma irregularity became much smaller between 21:00–01:00 LT.