Statistics of Night time Ionospheric Scintillation Using GPS data at low latitude ground station Varanasi

TL;DR

This study analyzes GPS data from Varanasi in 2009 to examine the monthly and seasonal variability of ionospheric scintillation and plasma bubbles at low latitudes, focusing on amplitude fluctuations and their spectral characteristics.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of ionospheric scintillation patterns and plasma bubble variability at Varanasi using dual-frequency GPS data over a year.

Findings

Monthly and seasonal variations in scintillation index observed.

Estimated plasma bubble velocities derived from spectral analysis.

Correlation between scintillation activity and solar/geomagnetic indices.

Abstract

Ionospheric scintillation is the rapid change in the phase and/or the amplitude of a radio signal as it passes through small scale plasma density irregularities in the ionosphere. These scintillations not only can reduce the accuracy of GPS/Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) receiver pseudo-range and carrier phase measurement but also can result in a complete loss of lock on a satellite. Scintillation in the ionosphere varies as the sun spot number (SSN), Geomagnetic index (o < Kp < 9), time of year, time of day, geographical position. Most scintillation occurs for a few hours after sunset during the peak years of the solar cycle. Typically delay locked loop/phase locked loop designs of GPS/SBAS receivers enable them to handle moderate amount if scintillations. Consequently, any attempt to determine the effects of scintillations on GPS/SBAS must consider both predictions of scintillation activity in the ionosphere and residual effect of this activity after processing by a receiver. In this work dual frequency (f1 = 1.5 GHz, f2 = 1.2 GHz) GPS data recorded at low latitude station Varanasi (Geographic latitude 250 18/ N, longitude 820 59/ E) have been analyzed to monitor the amplitude scintillation index (S4) from January 2009 to December 2009. These analyzed data is used to study the monthly and seasonal variability of ionospheric plasma bubbles at low latitude. We have studied the power spectral density of the signal and using it we have calculated the estimated scintillation pattern velocity.