Global observations of L band scintillation at solar minimum made by COSMIC

[1] We report observations of the L band scintillation climatology made during the minimum of solar cycle 23/24 using the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC, also known as FORMOSAT-3). The measurements of the S4 scintillation index were made using the GPS Occultation Experiment instrument, which is a dual-frequency GPS receiver used for routine ionospheric measurements via occultation of satellites in the GPS constellation. A method for geolocating the S4 measurements is presented and discussed. The geolocated COSMIC measurements are used to construct monthly climatologies of the S4 scintillation index, which are in good agreement with previous climatologies based on ground-based measurements. COSMIC measurements of the electron density and S4 index permit an assessment of the correlation of the S4 index with the electron density. The scintillation climatology for March and April 2007 is compared to the coincident monthly climatology of the electron density, and a correlation is observed, but this correlation does not appear to hold globally. The COSMIC measurements are shown to be a powerful data set for studying L band scintillation and its correlation with the underlying ionospheric morphology.

[1]  K. Yeh,et al.  Radio wave scintillations in the ionosphere , 1982 .

[2]  B. H. Briggs,et al.  On the variation of radio star and satellite scintillations with zenith angle , 1963 .

[3]  Michael C. Kelley,et al.  The earth's ionosphere , 1989 .

[4]  J. Huba,et al.  Three‐dimensional equatorial spread F modeling , 2008 .

[5]  Dieter Bilitza,et al.  International reference ionosphere , 1978 .

[6]  O. Beaujardiere,et al.  C/NOFS: a Mission to Forecast Scintillations , 2004 .

[7]  J. Retterer.  Forecasting low-latitude radio scintillation with 3-D ionospheric plume models: 2. Scintillation calculation , 2010 .

[8]  Michael C. Kelley,et al.  The Earth's Ionosphere : Plasma Physics and Electrodynamics , 1989 .

[9]  Larry J. Paxton,et al.  Control of equatorial ionospheric morphology by atmospheric tides , 2006 .

[10]  William H. Press,et al.  The Art of Scientific Computing Second Edition , 1998 .

[11]  S. Basu,et al.  Equatorial scintillations: advances since ISEA-6 , 1985 .

[12]  Jann‐Yenq Liu,et al.  Three-dimensional ionospheric electron density structure of the Weddell Sea Anomaly , 2008 .

[13]  W. J. Burke,et al.  C/NOFS observations of plasma density and electric field irregularities at post‐midnight local times , 2009 .

[14]  R. Roble,et al.  Connections between deep tropical clouds and the Earth's ionosphere , 2007 .

[15]  Jules Aarons,et al.  The longitudinal morphology of equatorial F-layer irregularities relevant to their occurrence , 1993 .

[16]  Christian Rocken,et al.  Detection of high‐altitude ionospheric irregularities with GPS/MET , 2002 .

[17]  J. Aarons,et al.  Global morphology of ionospheric scintillations , 1971, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[18]  Christian Rocken,et al.  The COSMIC/FORMOSAT-3 Mission: Early Results , 2008 .

[19]  E. Costa,et al.  Ionospheric scintillation calculations based on in situ irregularity spectra , 1977 .

[20]  Larry J. Paxton,et al.  Morphology of the equatorial anomaly and equatorial plasma bubbles using image subspace analysis of Global Ultraviolet imager data , 2005 .

[21]  P. R. Straus,et al.  GPS occultation sensor observations of ionospheric scintillation , 2003 .

[22]  A. Chulliat,et al.  International Geomagnetic Reference Field: the eleventh generation , 2010 .

[23]  J. D. Huba,et al.  Global modeling of equatorial plasma bubbles , 2010 .

[24]  J. A. Whalen,et al.  The linear dependence of GHz scintillation on electron density observed in the equatorial anomaly , 2009 .