Abstract
In this study, the characteristics of the total electron content (TEC) fluctuations and their regional differences over China were analyzed by utilizing the rate of the TEC index (ROTI) based on GPS data from 21 reference stations across China during a solar cycle. The results show that there were significant regional differences at different latitudes. Strong ionospheric TEC fluctuations were usually observed at lower latitudes in southern China, where the occurrence of TEC fluctuations demonstrated typical nighttime- and season-dependent (equinox months) features. This phenomenon was consistent with the ionospheric scintillation characteristics of this region. Additionally, compared to low-latitude China, the intensity of TEC fluctuations over mid-latitude China was significantly weaker, and the occurrence of TEC fluctuations was not a nighttime-dependent phenomenon. Moreover, the intensity of TEC fluctuations was much stronger during high solar activity than during low solar activity. Furthermore, the summer-dependent characteristics of TEC fluctuations gradually emerged over lower mid-latitude areas as equinox characteristics weakened. Similar to the equinox characteristics, the summer-dependent characteristics gradually weakened or even disappeared with the increasing latitude. Relevant discussions of this phenomenon are still relatively rare, and it requires further study and analysis.
Highlights
As one of the earliest known effects of space weather, ionospheric irregularities have a great impact on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and satellite communication [1,2,3,4,5,6] because they can result in rapid random fluctuations or degradation of the signal amplitude, phase and delay
Affected by irregular ionospheric activities, GNSS has become a powerful tool for investigating the total electron content (TEC) and TEC fluctuations associated with irregular ionospheric activities along signal paths [7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15], which have become essential to the way we live and work [16,17,18,19,20]
We investigated and analyzed the features of TEC fluctuations and their regional differences over China during a solar cycle, the 11-year pattern from 2002 to 2012
Summary
As one of the earliest known effects of space weather, ionospheric irregularities have a great impact on the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and satellite communication [1,2,3,4,5,6] because they can result in rapid random fluctuations or degradation of the signal amplitude, phase and delay. The amplitude/phase scintillation index S4/σφ and ROTI, are typically used to quantitatively describe the intensity of ionospheric scintillations or TEC fluctuations. Measurements of both S4 and σφ can be derived from GNSS scintillation monitoring receivers sampled at high frequencies, but the number and regional/global distribution of scintillation monitoring receivers are limited due to high costs. This sparsity of scintillation monitoring receivers restricts the extensive use of S4/σφ indices [7,9,10,11,12]
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