An analysis of global ionospheric disturbances and scintillations during the strong magnetic storm in September 2017
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ORIGINAL PAPER
An analysis of global ionospheric disturbances and scintillations during the strong magnetic storm in September 2017 Xin Song1 · Rong Yang1 · Xingqun Zhan1 Received: 6 August 2020 / Revised: 25 September 2020 / Accepted: 1 October 2020 © Shanghai Jiao Tong University 2020
Abstract Severe space weather events, e.g., solar flares and magnetic storm, can cause significant disturbances to the global ionosphere. The radio frequency signals, such as wireless communications and global satellite navigation system (GNSS) signals, often experience strong scintillations when traveling through the disturbed ionosphere layer. On 6 September 2017, the sun emitted the largest solar flare classified X9.3 since the 24th solar activity week. It triggered the geomagnetic storm and ionospheric storm on September 8, causing severe disturbances and scintillations of ionospheric. In this work, we take this event as the objective to investigate the characteristics of the ionosphere disturbance. First, the temporal and spatial distributions of ionospheric total electron content (TEC) are analyzed using the ground-based IGS data. The change of TEC is highly correlated with that of the geomagnetic indices and the magnetic storm has the greatest impact on low latitudes. Then, a fivepoint moving average method is adopted to extract the spatial fluctuations based on post-processed electron density and TEC data from COSMIC and GRACE missions. We find they show different disturbance characteristics in spatial distribution. In addition, the GNSS amplitude scintillation index S4 which is available from the COSMIC satellite mission is used to characterize ionospheric scintillation during this event. Weak scintillation occurred in most parts of the world on September 8 2017, while moderate scintillation is mainly concentrated around 120° W and 100° E. Our study can provide a basis for better evaluating the impact of ionosphere disturbance changes on satellite communication and navigation in space weather events. Keywords TEC · Ionospheric disturbances · Magnetic storm event · Ionospheric scintillations
1 Introduction The ionosphere refers to the upper atmosphere at a distance of 60–1000 km from the surface of the earth, which is defined by the International Association of Radio Engineers (IRE) as an area where “there are enough free electrons that can significantly affect radio wave propagation”. The Total Electron Content (TEC) and electron density of the ionosphere are important parameters to characterize the ionosphere, which have different temporal and spatial distributions, especially during geomagnetic storms [1]. According to the maximum distribution of electron density with height, the ionosphere is divided into D, E, F layers, and the topside ionosphere [2]. The F layer can be divided into F1 and F2 layers in the day-
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Xingqun Zhan [email protected]
time and the F1 layer disappears at night. The electron density of the F layer is much higher than that of the D layer and the E layer, and it has the strongest reflectio
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