Seasonal Characteristics of Phase Scintillation Observed at UKM Station in Malaysia

Abstract

Abstract We present a statistical comparison of the seasonal occurrence of ionospheric phase scintillation in the GPS signals at an equatorial region in Malaysia using the ground-based ionospheric monitoring GPS receiver and space-based radio occultation (RO) measurements. The observations were recorded at UKM (2.55°N, 101.461°E) in Malaysia during 2010 using GPS based scintillation and TEC Monitoring setup (GISTM). The space-based measurements were recorded by the FORMOSAT_3/COSMIC (F_3/C) satellites in 2010. The GPS limb-viewing radio occultation technique is an innovative technique that provides ideal geometry to observe vertical ionospheric structures to detect Equatorial Plasma bubbles (EPBs) and Sporadic E layers (Es). Radio waves throughout the irregular equatorial ionosphere are studied to characterize phase scintillations at the L1 frequency in different seasons. Seasonal characteristics of the GPS phase scintillation show it mainly occurs in the equinox months, particularly during March. The results show similar values as the Radio Occultation (RO) observations over UKM station, which demonstrates that March equinox has the maximum occurrence of scintillations with the appearance of EPBs and during June corresponding to the appearance of the Es layer in the ionosphere. We found seasonal characteristics of phase scintillations obtained from the Ground-based station are consistent with seasonal characteristics of amplitude scintillation that occurred from the space-based measurements. Nevertheless, F3/C RO provided an opportunity for concurrent sounding of EPBs and Es characteristic structures across the globe, unlike other traditional ground-based measurements.