Occurrence characteristics of equatorial plasma bubbles and total electron content during solar cycle peak 23rd to peak 24th over Bangalore (13.02∘ N, 77.57∘ E)

Abstract

We present the monthly, seasonal and annual variation in the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) and % occurrence rate of Equatorial plasma bubble (EPBs) during the lowest to highest solar activity phase for the period of 2002–2013. The Total Electron Content (TEC) is computed using Global Positing System (GPS) from Bangalore (13.02∘ N, 77.57∘ E) IGS station for the period 2002 to 2013. The total 4383 days during the period 2002–2013, out of which 4229 days GPS data were analyzed i.e. 96.48%. Total 1175 days data shows signature of EPBs. The average occurrence rates of EPBs were 5.93% during the disturbed period and 47.07% during quiet period. This shows that the EPBs occurrence rate is higher in quiet period than that of disturbed period. We also found that both the average GPS-TEC and % occurrence rate of plasma bubbles are positively correlated with solar flux for the entire 12 year period. This study investigates the causal linkage between EPBs and TEC using their statistics during the solar minimum and maximum period. The studies on dynamics of EPBs are essential because they affects the satellite communication system, mainly due to depletions in the Total Electron Content (TEC) which encounters most of the effects on GPS signals.