Equatorial total electron content (TEC) at low and high solar activity

2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (11) ◽  
pp. 1757-1761 ◽  
Author(s):  
O.K. Obrou ◽  
M.N. Mene ◽  
A.T. Kobea ◽  
K.Z. Zaka
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
Total Electron Content ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Total Electron

scholarly journals Annual and semiannual variations of vertical total electron content during high solar activity based on GPS observations

2011 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 865-873 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. P. Natali ◽  
A. Meza
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
Total Electron Content ◽  
Principal Component ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Vertical Total Electron Content ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
Ionospheric Variability ◽  
Low Latitudes ◽  
Sudden Decrease

Abstract. Annual, semiannual and seasonal variations of the Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) have been investigated during high solar activity in 2000. In this work we use Global IGS VTEC maps and Principal Component Analysis to study spatial and temporal ionospheric variability. The behavior of VTEC variations at two-hour periods, at noon and at night is analyzed. Particular characteristics associated with each period and the geomagnetic regions are highlighted. The variations at night are smaller than those obtained at noon. At noon it is possible to see patterns of the seasonal variation at high latitude, and patterns of the semiannual anomaly at low latitudes with a slow decrease towards mid latitudes. At night there is no evidence of seasonal or annual anomaly for any region, but it was possible to see the semiannual anomaly at low latitudes with a sudden decrease towards mid latitudes. In general, the semiannual behavior shows March–April equinox at least 40 % higher than September one. Similarities and differences are analyzed also with regard to the same analysis done for a period of low solar activity.

VARIATIONS IN TOTAL ELECTRON CONTENT DURING THE PHASES OF LOW AND HIGH SOLAR ACTIVITIES

2016 ◽  
Vol 78 (5-8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariyam Jamilah Homam ◽  
Mohamad Aizat Ezri Ahmad Hapizudin
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
Total Electron Content ◽  
Solar Minimum ◽  
Solar Maximum ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Minimum Phase ◽  
Maximum Phase ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
Value Changes

Variations in the Total Electron Content of the ionosphere were studied by utilizing data from the GISTM receiver installed at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia. The study was conducted during periods of low solar activity (July 2007–July 2008) and high solar activity (July 2013–July 2014). Results show that the TEC are dependent on the solar activity.The values during high solar activity were significantly higher than that obtained during the solar minimum phase. The minimum TEC values for both phases varied between 89% and 97%, and the maximum TEC values varied between 70% and 81%. The pattern of daily TEC value changes was constant, and TEC peaked in the afternoon at ~14 LT. The highest TEC recorded during the solar maximum phase was 144.5 TEC Unit (TECU) in April 2014, whereas the highest TEC recorded during the solar minimum phase was 36.3 TECU in April 2008. TEC was maximized from March to May under both solar maximum and minimum phases.

scholarly journals A Neural Network-Based TEC Model Capable of Reproducing Nighttime Winter Anomaly

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 4559
Author(s):  
Marjolijn Adolfs ◽  
Mohammed Mainul Hoque
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Solar Activity ◽  
Geomagnetic Latitude ◽  
Machine Learning Techniques ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Solar Cycles ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
The Neural Network ◽  
Winter Anomaly

With the availability of fast computing machines, as well as the advancement of machine learning techniques and Big Data algorithms, the development of a more sophisticated total electron content (TEC) model featuring the Nighttime Winter Anomaly (NWA) and other effects is possible and is presented here. The NWA is visible in the Northern Hemisphere for the American sector and in the Southern Hemisphere for the Asian longitude sector under solar minimum conditions. During the NWA, the mean ionization level is found to be higher in the winter nights compared to the summer nights. The approach proposed here is a fully connected neural network (NN) model trained with Global Ionosphere Maps (GIMs) data from the last two solar cycles. The day of year, universal time, geographic longitude, geomagnetic latitude, solar zenith angle, and solar activity proxy, F10.7, were used as the input parameters for the model. The model was tested with independent TEC datasets from the years 2015 and 2020, representing high solar activity (HSA) and low solar activity (LSA) conditions. Our investigation shows that the root mean squared (RMS) deviations are in the order of 6 and 2.5 TEC units during HSA and LSA period, respectively. Additionally, NN model results were compared with another model, the Neustrelitz TEC Model (NTCM). We found that the neural network model outperformed the NTCM by approximately 1 TEC unit. More importantly, the NN model can reproduce the evolution of the NWA effect during low solar activity, whereas the NTCM model cannot reproduce such effect in the TEC variation.

scholarly journals Characterization of ionospheric irregularities over Vietnam and adjacent region for the 2008-2018 period

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dung Nguyen Thanh ◽  
Minh Le Huy ◽  
Christine Amory-Mazaudier ◽  
Rolland Fleury ◽  
Susumu Saito ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
Correlation Coefficients ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Occurrence Rate ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
Plasma Irregularities ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Continuous Gps

This paper presents the variations of the rate of change of Total Electron Content (TEC) index (ROTI), characterizing the occurrence of ionospheric plasma irregularities over Vietnam and neighboring countries in the Southeast Asian region using the continuous GPS data during the 2008-2018 period. The results showed that the occurrence of strong ROTI in all stations is maximum in equinox months March/April and September/October and depends on solar activity. The ROTI is weak during periods of low solar activity and strong during periods of high solar activity. There is an asymmetry between the two equinoxes. During maximum and declining phases of 2014-2016, occurrence rates in March equinox are larger than in September equinox, but during the descending period of 2010-2011, the occurrence rates in September equinox at almost all stations are larger than in March equinox. The correlation coefficients between the monthly occurrence rate of irregularities and the F10.7 solar index at the stations in the equatorward EIA crest region are higher than at those in the magnetic equatorial and the poleward EIA crest regions. The irregularity occurrence is high in the pre-midnight sector, maximum between 2000 LT to 2200 LT. The maximum irregularity occurrence is located around 4-5° degrees in latitude equator-ward away from the anomaly crests.

Development and investigation of a deep learning based method for TEC map completion

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingwu Jin ◽  
Yang Pan ◽  
Shunrong Zhang ◽  
Yue Deng
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
Mean Squared Error ◽  
Image Inpainting ◽  
Science Research ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
International Gnss Service ◽  
Generative Adversarial Network ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
Adversarial Network

<p>Because of the limited coverage of receiver stations, current measurements of Total Electron Content (TEC) by ground-based GNSS receivers are not complete with large portions of data gaps. The processing to obtain complete TEC maps for space science research is time consuming and needs the collaboration of five International GNSS Service (IGS) Ionosphere Associate Analysis Centers (IAACs) to use different data processing and filling algorithms and to consolidate their results into final IGS completed TEC maps. In this work, we developed a Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Network (DCGAN) and Poisson blending model (DCGAN-PB) to learn IGS completion process for automatic completion of TEC maps. Using 10-fold cross validation of 20-year IGS TEC data, DCGAN-PB achieves the average root mean squared error (RMSE) about 4 absolute TEC units (TECu) of the high solar activity years and around 2 TECu for low solar activity years, which is about 50% reduction of RMSE for recovered TEC values compared to two conventional single-image inpainting methods. The developed DCGAN-PB model can lead to an efficient automatic completion tool for TEC maps.</p>

scholarly journals Evaluating the Performance of IRI-2016 Using GPS-TEC Measurements over the Equatorial Region

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 1243
Author(s):  
Nouf Abd Elmunim ◽  
Mardina Abdullah ◽  
Siti Aminah Bahari
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
Early Morning ◽  
Equatorial Region ◽  
Activity Period ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Dual Frequency ◽  
Iri Model ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
Solar Activity Period

Total electron content (TEC) is an important parameter in the ionosphere that is extensively used to study the variability of the ionosphere as it significantly affects radio wave propagations, causing delays on GPS signals. Therefore, evaluating the performance of ionospheric models is crucial to reveal the variety of ionospheric behaviour in different solar activity periods during geomagnetically quiet and disturbed periods for further improvements of the IRI model performance over the equatorial region. This research aimed to investigate the variations of ionospheric VTEC and observe the improvement in the performance of the IRI-2016 (IRI-2001, IRI01-corr, and NeQuick). The IRI-2016 was evaluated with the IRI-2012 using NeQuick, IRI-2001, and IRI01-corr topside electron density options. The data were obtained using a dual-frequency GPS receiver installed at the Universiti Utara Malaysia Kedah (UUMK) (geographic coordinates 4.62° N–103.21° E, geomagnetic coordinates 5.64° N–174.98° E), Mukhtafibillah (MUKH) (geographic coordinates 6.46° N–100.50° E, geomagnetic coordinates 3.32° S–172.99° E), and Tanjung Pengerang (TGPG) (geographic coordinates 1.36° N–104.10°E, geomagnetic coordinates 8.43° S–176.53° E) stations, during ascending to high solar activity at the geomagnetically quiet and disturbed periods in October 2011, March 2012, and March 2013. The maximum hourly ionospheric VTEC was observed during the post-noon time, while the minimum was during the early morning time. The ionospheric VTEC modelled by IRI-2016 had a slight improvement from the IRI-2012. However, the differences were observed during the post-noon and night-time, while the modelled VTEC from both IRI models were almost similar during the early morning time. Regarding the daily quiet and disturbed period’s prediction capability of the IRI-2016 and IRI-2012, IRI-2016 gave better agreement with the measured VTEC. The overall results showed that the model’s prediction performance during the high solar activity period in 2013 was better than the one during the ascending solar activity period. The results of the comparison between IRI-2016 and IRI-2012 in high solar activity exhibited that during quiet periods, all the IRI models showed better agreement with the measured VTEC compared to the disturbed periods.

scholarly journals Accuracy of Global Ionosphere Maps in Relation to Their Time Interval

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 3552
Author(s):  
Beata Milanowska ◽  
Paweł Wielgosz ◽  
Anna Krypiak-Gregorczyk ◽  
Wojciech Jarmołowski
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
Geomagnetic Storms ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
Time Interval ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Dual Frequency ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
Low Latitudes ◽  
Globally Distributed ◽  
Gnss Observations

Global ionosphere maps (GIMs) representing ionospheric total electron content (TEC) are applicable in many scientific and engineering applications. However, the GIMs provided by seven Ionosphere Associated Analysis Centers (IAACs) are generated with different temporal resolutions and using different modeling techniques. In this study, we focused on the influence of map time interval on the empirical accuracy of these ionospheric products. We investigated performance of the high-resolution GIMs during high (2014) and low (2018) solar activity periods as well as under geomagnetic storms (19 February 2014 and 17 March 2015). In each of the analyzed periods, GIMs were also assessed over different geomagnetic latitudes. For the evaluation, we used direct comparison of GIM-derived slant TEC (STEC) with dual-frequency GNSS observations obtained from 18 globally distributed stations. In order to perform a comprehensive study, we also evaluated GIMs with respect to altimetry-derived vertical TEC (VTEC) obtained from the Jason-2 and Jason-3 satellites. The study confirmed the influence of GIMs time interval on the provided TEC accuracy, which was particularly evident during high solar activity, geomagnetic storms, and also at low latitudes. The results show that 120-min interval contributes significantly to the accuracy degradation, whereas 60-min one is sufficient to maintain TEC accuracy.

scholarly journals A Least Squares Solution to Regionalize VTEC Estimates for Positioning Applications

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 3545
Author(s):  
Saeed Farzaneh ◽  
Ehsan Forootan
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
South America ◽  
Least Squares ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Vertical Total Electron Content ◽  
Dual Frequency ◽  
Numerical Application ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
Band Limited

A new approach is presented to improve the spatial and temporal resolution of the Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) estimates for regional positioning applications. The proposed technique utilises a priori information from the Global Ionosphere Maps (GIMs) of the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE), provided in terms of Spherical Harmonic (SH) coefficients of up to degree and order 15. Then, it updates the VTEC estimates using a new set of base-functions (with better resolution than SHs) while using the measurements of a regional GNSS network. To achieve the highest accuracy possible, our implementation is based on a transformation of the GIM/CODE VTECs to their equivalent coefficients in terms of (spherical) Slepian functions. These functions are band-limited and reflect the majority of signal energy inside an arbitrarily defined region, yet their orthogonal property is remained. Then, new dual-frequency GNSS measurements are introduced to a Least Squares (LS) updating step that modifies the Slepian VTEC coefficients within the region of interest. Numerical application of this study is demonstrated using a synthetic example and ground-based GPS data in South America. The results are also validated against the VTEC estimations derived from independent GPS stations (that are not used in the modelling), and the VTEC products of international centres. Our results indicate that, by using 62 GPS stations in South America, the ionospheric delay estimation can be considerably improved. For example, using the new VTEC estimates in a Precise Point Positioning (PPP) experiment improved the positioning accuracy compared to the usage of GIM/CODE and Klobuchar models. The reductions in the root mean squared of errors were ∼23% and 25% for a day with moderate solar activity while 26% and ∼35% for a day with high solar activity, respectively.

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