GPS Phase Scintillation at High Latitudes during Geomagnetic Storms of 7–17 March 2012 – Part 1: The North American Sector

During the ascending phase of solar cycle 24, a series of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) in the period 7–17 March 2012 caused geomagnetic storms that strongly affected high-latitude ionosphere in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. GPS phase scintillation was observed at northern and southern high latitudes by arrays of GPS ionospheric scintillation and TEC monitors (GISTMs) and geodetic-quality GPS receivers sampling at 1 Hz. Mapped as a function of magnetic latitude and magnetic local time, regions of enhanced scintillation are identified in the context of coupling processes between the solar wind and the magnetosphere–ionosphere system. Large southward IMF and high solar wind dynamic pressure resulted in the strongest scintillation in the nightside auroral oval. Scintillation occurrence was correlated with ground magnetic field perturbations and riometer absorption enhancements, and collocated with mapped auroral emission. During periods of southward IMF, scintillation was also collocated with ionospheric convection in the expanded dawn and dusk cells, with the antisunward convection in the polar cap and with a tongue of ionization fractured into patches. In contrast, large northward IMF combined with a strong solar wind dynamic pressure pulse was followed by scintillation caused by transpolar arcs in the polar cap

GPS phase scintillation and proxy index at high latitudes during a moderate geomagnetic storm

The amplitude and phase scintillation indices are customarily obtained by specialised GPS Ionospheric Scintillation and TEC Monitors (GISTMs) from L1 signal recorded at the rate of 50 Hz. The scintillation indices S[subscript 4] and σ[subscript Φ] are stored in real time from an array of high-rate scintillation receivers of the Canadian High Arctic Ionospheric Network (CHAIN). Ionospheric phase scintillation was observed at high latitudes during a moderate geomagnetic storm (Dst = −61 nT) that was caused by a moderate solar wind plasma stream compounded with the impact of two coronal mass ejections. The most intense phase scintillation (σ[subscript Φ] ~ 1 rad) occurred in the cusp and the polar cap where it was co-located with a strong ionospheric convection, an extended tongue of ionisation and dense polar cap patches that were observed with ionosondes and HF radars. At sub-auroral latitudes, a sub-auroral polarisation stream that was observed by mid-latitude radars was associated with weak scintillation (defined arbitrarily as σ[subscript Φ] 0.1 rad and DPR > 2 mm s[superscript −1], both mapped as a function of magnetic latitude and magnetic local time, are very similar.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant ATM-0856093

GPS phase scintillation at high latitudes during geomagnetic storms of 7-17 March 2012, part 2: interhemispheric comparison

During the ascending phase of solar cycle 24, a series of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) in the period 7–17 March 2012 caused geomagnetic storms that strongly affected high-latitude ionosphere in the Northern and Southern Hemisphere. GPS phase scintillation was observed at northern and southern high latitudes by arrays of GPS ionospheric scintillation and TEC monitors (GISTMs) and geodetic-quality GPS receivers sampling at 1 Hz. Mapped as a function of magnetic latitude and magnetic local time (MLT), the scintillation was observed in the ionospheric cusp, the tongue of ionization fragmented into patches, sun-aligned arcs in the polar cap, and nightside auroral oval and subauroral latitudes. Complementing a companion paper (Prikryl et al., 2015a) that focuses on the high latitude ionospheric response to variable solar wind in the North American sector, interhemispheric comparison reveals commonalities as well as differences and asymmetries between the northern and southern high latitudes, as a consequence of the coupling between the solar wind and magnetosphere. The interhemispheric asymmetries are caused by the dawn–dusk component of the interplanetary magnetic field controlling the MLT of the cusp entry of the storm enhanced density plasma into the polar cap and the orientation relative to the noon–midnight meridian of the tongue of ionization

An interhemispheric comparison of GPS phase scintillation with auroral emission observed at the South Pole and from the DMSP satellite

The global positioning system (GPS) phase scintillation caused by highlatitude ionospheric irregularities during an intense high-speed stream (HSS) of the solar wind from April 29 to May 5, 2011, was observed using arrays of GPS ionospheric scintillation and total electron content monitors in the Arctic and Antarctica. The one-minute phase-scintillation index derived from the data sampled at 50 Hz was complemented by a proxy index (delta phase rate) obtained from 1-Hz GPS data. The scintillation occurrence coincided with the aurora borealis and aurora australis observed by an all-sky imager at the South Pole, and by special sensor ultraviolet scanning imagers on board satellites of the Defense Meteorological Satellites Program. The South Pole (SP) station is approximately conjugate with two Canadian High Arctic Ionospheric Network stations on Baffin Island, Canada, which provided the opportunity to study magnetic conjugacy of scintillation with support of riometers and magnetometers. The GPS ionospheric pierce points were mapped at their actual or conjugate locations, along with the auroral emission over the South Pole, assuming an altitude of 120 km. As the aurora brightened and/or drifted across the field of view of the all-sky imager, sequences of scintillation events were observed that indicated conjugate auroras as a locator of simultaneous or delayed bipolar scintillation events. In spite of the greater scintillation intensity in the auroral oval, where phase scintillation sometimes exceeded 1 radian during the auroral break-up and substorms, the percentage occurrence of moderate scintillation was highest in the cusp. Interhemispheric comparisons of bipolar scintillation maps show that the scintillation occurrence is significantly higher in the southern cusp and polar cap

GPS phase scintillation at high latitudes during geomagnetic storms of 7–17 March 2012 – Part 1: The North American sector

The interval of geomagnetic storms of 7–17 March 2012 was selected at the Climate and Weather of the Sun-Earth System (CAWSES) II Workshop for group study of space weather effects during the ascending phase of solar cycle 24 (Tsurutani et al., 2014). The high-latitude ionospheric response to a series of storms is studied using arrays of GPS receivers, HF radars, ionosondes, riometers, magnetometers, and auroral imagers focusing on GPS phase scintillation. Four geomagnetic storms showed varied responses to solar wind conditions characterized by the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and solar wind dynamic pressure. As a function of magnetic latitude and magnetic local time, regions of enhanced scintillation are identified in the context of coupling processes between the solar wind and the magnetosphere–ionosphere system. Large southward IMF and high solar wind dynamic pressure resulted in the strongest scintillation in the nightside auroral oval. Scintillation occurrence was correlated with ground magnetic field perturbations and riometer absorption enhancements, and collocated with mapped auroral emission. During periods of southward IMF, scintillation was also collocated with ionospheric convection in the expanded dawn and dusk cells, with the antisunward convection in the polar cap and with a tongue of ionization fractured into patches. In contrast, large northward IMF combined with a strong solar wind dynamic pressure pulse was followed by scintillation caused by transpolar arcs in the polar cap

ANÁLISE ESTATÍSTICA DO POSICIONAMENTO RELATIVO A PARTIR DO AUSPOS

A disponibilidade de sistemas de processamento de dados GPS (Global Positioning System), online e gratuitos, tem aumentado nos últimos anos. Dentre esses destaca-se o AUSPOS (v.2.1) o qual emprega o programa BERNESE (v. 5.0) para realização do posicionamento relativo estático. O objetivo desse trabalho é verificar a qualidade do posicionamento planimétrico e altimétrico obtido com o uso do AUSPOS. Para isso foram utilizados arquivos contendo sessões de observações GPS de 4, 6 e 24 horas, no período de 22 dias consecutivos, no mês de setembro de 2013, das estações CRUZ, IMBT, IMPZ, MGIN e POAL, pertencentes à RBMC (Rede Brasileira de Monitoramento Contínuo dos Sistemas GNSS). Os resultados mostraram menor variabilidade posicional com o aumento da duração da sessão de rastreio e as acurácias planimétrica e altimétrica sub-centimétricas para o período de 24h e centimétricas para os períodos de 4h e 6h