Climatology of ionospheric scintillation over the Vietnam low-latitude region for the period 2006–2014

This paper presents the characteristics of the occurrence of ionospheric scintillations at low-latitude, over Vietnam, by using continuous data of three GSV4004 receivers located at PHUT/Hanoi (105.9 o E, 21.0 o N; magnetic latitude 14.4 o N), HUES/Hue (107.6 o E, 16.5 o N; magnetic latitude 9.5 o N) and HOCM/ Ho Chi Minh city (106.6 o E, 10.8 o N; magnetic latitude 3.3 o N) for the period 2006-2014. The results show that the scintillation activity is maximum during equinox months for all the years and depends on solar activity as expected. The correlations between the monthly percentage scintillation occurrence and the F10.7 flux are of 0.40, 0.52 and 0.67 for PHUT, HUES and HOCM respectively. The distribution of scintillation occurrences is dominant in the pre-midnight sector and around the northern crest of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA), from the 15 o N to 20 o N geographic latitude with a maximum at 16 o N. The results obtained from the directional analysis show higher distributions of scintillations in the southern sky of PHUT and in the northern sky of HUES and HOCM, and in the elevation angles smaller than 40 o. The correlation between ROTI and S 4 is low and 2 rather good at PHUT (under EIA) than HOCM (near equator). We found better correlation in the post-midnight hours and less correlation in the pre-midnight hours for all stations. When all satellites are considered during the period of 2009-2011, the range of variation of the ration between ROTI and S 4 is from 1 to 7 for PHUT, from 0.3 to 6 for HUES and from 0.7 to 6 for HOCM.

[1]  Bela G. Fejer,et al.  Quiet time equatorial F region vertical plasma drift model derived from ROCSAT‐1 observations , 2008 .

[2]  Cesar E. Valladares,et al.  Latitudinal extension of low-latitude scintillations measured with a network of GPS receivers , 2004 .

[3]  Michael Pezzopane,et al.  Comparative analysis of spread‐F signature and GPS scintillation occurrences at Tucumán, Argentina , 2013 .

[4]  K. U. Nair,et al.  Development of intermediate scale structure near the peak of the F region within an equatorial plasma bubble , 2014 .

[5]  P. V. S. Rama Rao,et al.  Study of spatial and temporal characteristics of L-band scintillations over the Indian low-latitude region and their possible effects on GPS navigation , 2006 .

[6]  R. Tsunoda.  Backscatter measurements of 11-cm equatorial spread-F irregularities , 1980 .

[7]  P. Anderson,et al.  Magnetic field orientation control of GPS occultation observations of equatorial scintillation , 2005 .

[8]  Keith M. Groves,et al.  A comparison of TEC fluctuations and scintillations at Ascension Island , 1999 .

[9]  Kangkang Liu,et al.  Statistical characteristics of low-latitude ionospheric scintillation over China , 2015 .

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

[11]  J. Aarons,et al.  Equatorial scintillations: A review , 1977 .

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

[13]  A. J. Van Dierendonck,et al.  Measuring Ionospheric Scintillation Effects from GPS Signals , 2001 .

[14]  T. Maruyama,et al.  Observations of small- to large-scale ionospheric irregularities associated with plasma bubbles with a transequatorial HF propagation experiment and spaced GPS receivers , 2008 .

[15]  M. A. Cervera,et al.  Latitudinal and temporal variation of equatorial ionospheric irregularities determined from GPS scintillation observations , 2006 .

[16]  Hong Yuan,et al.  Analysis of ionospheric scintillation spectra and TEC in the Chinese low latitude region , 2007 .

[17]  Guozhu Li,et al.  Effect of magnetic activity on plasma bubbles over equatorial and , 2009 .

[18]  Jules Aarons,et al.  On the coexistence of kilometer- and meter-scale irregularities in the nighttime equatorial F region , 1978 .

[19]  Keith M. Groves,et al.  TEC Gradients and Fluctuations at Low Latitudes Measured with High Data Rate GPS Receivers , 2007 .

[20]  Sanjay Kumar,et al.  Remote sensing of ionospheric plasma bubbles using GPS/GNSS , 2016, 2016 International Conference on Localization and GNSS (ICL-GNSS).

[21]  Xiaoqing Pi,et al.  Monitoring of global ionospheric irregularities using the Worldwide GPS Network , 1997 .

[22]  GNSS station characterisation for ionospheric scintillation applications , 2013 .

[23]  Yong Jiang,et al.  A study of GPS ionospheric scintillations observed at Shenzhen , 2014 .

[24]  W. Dietrich,et al.  Sediment load and floodplain deposition rates: Comparison of the Fly and Strickland rivers, Papua New Guinea , 2008 .

[25]  Keith M. Groves,et al.  Geomagnetic control of equatorial plasma bubble activity modeled by the TIEGCM with Kp , 2014 .

[26]  Kiyohumi Yumoto,et al.  Effects of geomagnetic storm on GPS ionospheric scintillations at Sanya , 2008 .

[27]  Wahyu Srigutomo,et al.  Low-latitude scintillation occurrences around the equatorial anomaly crest over Indonesia , 2014 .

[28]  Marcio Aquino,et al.  Climatology of GPS ionospheric scintillations over high and mid-latitude European regions , 2009 .

[29]  Alain Bourdillon,et al.  Ionospheric scintillation monitoring and modelling , 2009 .

[30]  Jisheng Xu,et al.  Effects of a major storm on GPS amplitude scintillations and phase fluctuations at Wuhan in China , 2007 .

[31]  R. Fleury,et al.  Time variations of the total electron content in the Southeast Asian equatorial ionization anomaly for the period 2006-2011 , 2014 .

[32]  Paul M. Kintner,et al.  Simultaneous Global Positioning System observations of equatorial scintillations and total electron content fluctuations , 1999 .

[33]  E. R. Paula,et al.  Effects of the vertical plasma drift velocity on the generation and evolution of equatorial spread F , 1999 .

[34]  C. Twohy,et al.  Nitrogenated organic aerosols as cloud condensation nuclei , 2005 .