Investigation of Ionospheric Scintillation using BeiDou during Geomagnetic and Non-geomagnetic Storm Conditions Over Pakistan

Abstract

The amplitude and phase of the trans-ionospheric radio frequency (RF) signals can be influenced by the existence of electron density irregularities in the ionosphere. These irregularities may give rise to ionospheric scintillation phenomena which is characterized by rapid amplitude and phase variations in the received signals. The occurrence and severity of ionospheric scintillation is highly dependent on the geomagnetic storm, solar activity, time of the day and geographic location of the receiver and thus, poses a significant threat to the availability and accuracy of satellite-based navigation systems. This paper presents a detailed study on ionospheric scintillation using the Chinese BeiDou navigation system at the verge of low and mid latitude (Sukkur, Pakistan: Latitude 27.73° N, Longitude 68.82° 8 E). The variations and occurrence patterns of scintillation are studied in detail using BeiDou raw data for the year 2020. The diurnal, monthly, and seasonal variations were investigated during geomagnetic quiet and disturbed days. The result of this study shows that amplitude scintillation is most probable to arise at this region (Pakistan) as compared to phase scintillation. The detailed analysis of scintillation occurrence patterns indicates that scintillation is found to be more active in winter season with maximum scintillation events (S4 > 0.3) in the month of March. This initial study on occurrences of scintillation over Pakistan can be beneficial for better understanding the scintillation trends over Pakistan and can pave the way for conducting long term studies.