Study of Ionospheric Variability during the Storm of January, 2005 using GPS and DEMETER Satellite Measurements

Abstract

The dual frequency Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver provides an opportunity to determine Total Electron Content (TEC) over the crest of equatorial ionization anomaly region Bhopal by taking advantage of the dispersive nature of the ionospheric medium. The TEC values observed for the geomagnetic storm of the January 2005 is used in this paper to discuss the behaviour of ionospheric total electron content (TEC) during geomagnetically disturbed period. Variation of TEC is studied in correlation with the geomagnetic index Dst and southward component of interplanetary magnetic field Bz. The TEC variability is found to vary between with the maximum negative excursion of Dst index during the geomagnetic storms days. Positive phase is observed. Maximum TEC variability is observed during the recovery phase of the storms. Electron and ion density measurements from the DEMETER satellite are compared with the TEC measurements. The study of storm time TEC behaviour is very important due to recent increase in satellite-based navigation applications.

Keywords: Ionosphere, geomagnetic storms, GPS, DEMETER, TEC