Temporal Variations of GPS Irregularities at Conjugate Points under Storm Conditions

Mohammed Awad Momani,Sumazly Sulaiman,Farouq M Al-Taweel

doi:10.4236/pos.2011.24014

Abstract

The paper investigates the temporal variations of GPS irregularities at quasi-conjugate points in the polar region during the October-Novemebrr 2003 Halloween storm. The pseudorange and carrier phase observables obtained from dual frequency GPS receivers of Trimble 5700 at Scott Base Station in Antarctica and Ashtech Z-X113 at Resolute Bay in Nunavut, Arctic are employed in determination the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) and scintillation parameters. The comparison of TEC and scintillation parameters at both stations show: dominant occurrence of positive storm phases over the nightside hemisphere, dominant occurrence of negative storm phases over the dayside hemisphere ,the periods of pronounced scintillation activity at both hemispheres were coincident with the TEC enhancement periods, the weak scintillation periods are coincident with the TEC depletion periods. The strong TEC enhancement during the sudden storm commencement of the geomagnetic storm was only seen over the nightside station, and finally obvious asymmetry in the ionospheric TEC and scintillation activity between summer and winter hemispheres was observed. The results over the polar were in good agreement with previous measurements made by other researchers over the subauraral and midlatitude regions.

Highlights

The ionosphere is prone to significant disturbances, which are considerably worse during periods of high solar activity [1]
The pseudorange and carrier phase observables obtained from dual frequency GPS receivers of Trimble 5700 at Scott Base Station in Antarctica and Ashtech Z-X113 at Resolute Bay in Nunavut, Arctic are employed in determination the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) and scintillation parameters
The comparison of TEC and scintillation parameters at both stations show: dominant occurrence of positive storm phases over the nightside hemisphere, dominant occurrence of negative storm phases over the dayside hemi-sphere, the periods of pronounced scintillation activity at both hemispheres were coincident with the TEC enhancement periods, the weak scintillation periods are coincident with the TEC depletion periods

Summary

Introduction

The ionosphere is prone to significant disturbances, which are considerably worse during periods of high solar activity [1]. Several studies were made to investigate the similarities of the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) and compare the response between northern and southern hemispheres [3,4,5]. Most of these studies are highly concentrated on middle and subauroral latitudes but poorly investigated at high latitude regions especially in Antarctica. This paper examines the temporal variations of GPS TEC and scintillation measurements at conjugate points under storm conditions.

Methods

Results

Conclusion