Ionospheric Anomalies During the March 2013 Geomagnetic Storm from BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) Observations

Abstract

Earth’s ionosphere disturbances triggered by the geomagnetic storm usually affect the propagation of radio electromagnetic wave. The mid-geomagnetic storm occurred in March 2013 with Dst index of up to −132 nT, which may disturb signal tracking and positioning results of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). Unfortunately, LOS TEC series derived from GPS observations contain the ionospheric horizontal gradient information due to the satellites’ movement. Geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) satellites of BeiDou navigation satellite system (BDS) give us an opportunity to detect ionospheric variations without horizontal gradient of electron density affection. In this paper, the Beidou stations’ data provided by multi-GNSS experiments (MGEX) from IGS are the first time used to analyze the geomagnetic storm effects on Beidou navigation system (BDS) and ionospheric anomalous behaviors during 15–21 March 2013. The total electron content (TEC) variations are investigated during this geomagnetic storm using carrier phase measurements from BeiDou GEO satellites in B1 and B2. Dramatic TEC decrease is observed at the main storm and then increases gradually. Hourly TEC scintillation enhances greatly in the next hours of Storm Sudden Commencements (SSC). Although geomagnetic storm effect is global and regional, anomalies difference also can be detected by BDS-GEO TEC observations.