Diurnal variations of the parameters of ionospheric disturbances as derived from data of tec measurements over the antarctic peninsula

Abstract

The dynamic approach to the problem of GNSS diagnostics of ionospheric disturbances is extended to the case of an arbitrary waveform of perturbations of the Total Electron Content (TEC). The developed algorithm is used for processing a database of multi-site observations of TEC variations over the Antarctic Peninsula obtained between April 2009 and June 2010. Diurnal dependences of the occurrence frequency and motion velocity and direction of middle-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (TID) are analyzed. Statistical treatment of the obtained results shows that during daytime the TIDs propagate predominantly in the northern and northeastern directions. In the evening and nocturnal hours the northwestern direction is prevailing. The characteristic motion velocities of ionospheric disturbances range from 10 to 250 m/s. The most probable velocities are tens of meters per second, while the mean values are equal to about 100÷130 m/s. In the daytime ionospheric disturbances propagate at higher velocity than in the nighttime.