Title
On the mutual relationship of the equatorial electrojet, TEC and scintillation in the Peruvian sector
Date Issued
01 June 2016
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Publisher(s)
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Abstract
This paper presents the interrelationship between the equatorial electrojet (EEJ) strength, Global Positioning System (GPS)-derived total electron content (TEC), and postsunset scintillation from ground observations with the aim of finding reliable precursors of the occurrence of ionospheric irregularities. Mutual relationship studies provide a possible route to predict the occurrence of TEC fluctuation and scintillation in the ionosphere during the late afternoon and night respectively based on daytime measurement of the equatorial ionosphere. Data from ground based observations in the low latitudes of the west American longitude sector were examined during the 2008 solar minimum. We find a strong relationship exists between the noontime equatorial electrojet and GPS-derived TEC distributions during the afternoon mediated by vertical E × B drift via the fountain effect, but there is little or no relationship with postsunset ionospheric scintillation.
Start page
742
End page
751
Volume
51
Issue
6
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Geoquímica, Geofísica
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84978376802
Source
Radio Science
ISSN of the container
00486604
Sponsor(s)
The authors would like to thank Claudio Brunini and Mauricio Gende of the Geocentric Reference System for the Americas (SIRGAS) and Michael Bevis from Ohio State University-Central and Southern Andes GPS Project (OSU-CAP) for providing GPS data. Hector Mora from the Colombian Institute of Geology and Mining (INGEOMINAS) provided RINEX files from several stations in Colombia. One of the authors, Valladares, was partially supported by Air Force Research Laboratory contract FA8718-09-C-0041 and NSF grants ATM-1135675 and ATM-1242476. The Low-Latitude Ionospheric Sensor Network (LISN) is a project led by Boston College in collaboration with the Geophysical Institute of Peru and other institutions that provide information in benefit of the scientific community. We thank all organizations and persons that are supporting and operating receivers in LISN. We thank Robert Sheehan for his helpful comments and suggestions on the paper. The TEC values presented in this publication are stored in the LISN web page (http://lisn.igp.gob.pe).
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus