© 2019 IJRAR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 1 www.ijrar.

org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

CHARACTERISTICS OF EQUATORIAL
PLASMA BUBBLES OVER
CHANGANACHERRY: CASE STUDIES
1
Sreekumar Haridas
Research Scholar
School of Pure and Applied Physics
Mahatma Gandhi University, Priyadarshini Hills
Kottayam – 686 560, Kerala, India
2
K. Unnikrishnan
Associate Professor
Department of Physics
N S S Hindu College, Changanacherry
Kerala 686 102, India

Abstract: In this work, the characteristics of equatorial plasma bubbles namely their velocity, east-west width, and average
uncertainty were studied by considering three plasma bubble events observed at a near equatorial trough station, Changanacherry
(Geomagnetic latitude 1.11 0 N and Geomagnetic longitude 149.84 0 E). The Single station - multisatellite technique is employed
to record S4 index time series from two geostationary Indian satellites GSAT-8 (PRN 127) and GSAT-10 (PRN 128) at this
location. The cross-correlation between the S4 index time series derived from GSAT-8 and 10 would provide the time delay to
cross the plasma bubble in between the line of sights of these satellites. Based on the measured time delay, the drift velocity, and
east-west width of plasma bubbles were estimated. It is interesting to note that all the three bubbles were detected during the pre-
midnight sectors.
Index Terms -: Equatorial Ionosphere, Geostationary satellites, Plasma bubbles

I. INTRODUCTION

The rapid variations occurred in the amplitude and phase of the radio signals as they transit through
ionospheric perturbations are generally called scintillations (Aarons, 1982; Basu et al., 1988; Kintner et al.,
2001; Klobuchar et al., 2002). If the ionospheric/thermospheric conditions are appropriate, plasma
instabilities may initiate irregularities of different scale sizes, produce large values of scintillation index (S4)
which can be recorded by GNSS receiver. Moreover, strong irregularities may destroy the lock or
synchronization of GNSS receiver with the satellite, which seriously affect satellite based navigation
systems, like air traffic control and precision landing (Kintner et al., 2001), especially over the
equatorial/low-latitude sectors.
Recently Unnikrishnan et al. (2017) suggested two tecniques based on the correlations between the S4
index data from GSAT-8 and GSAT-10, namely (a) single station-multisatellite and (b) multistation-single
satellite techniques. In this work, three plasma bubble events observed in April 2017 were investigated using
first method by correlating the S4 index of L1 band (1575.42 MHz) of PRN-127 and PRN-128 recorded by
GNSS receiver installed at Changanacherry. We analyzed the characteristics of plasma bubble evolution by
estimating the drift velocity of plasma bubbles, east-west width by tracking two geostationary Indian
satellites, namely GSAT-8 (PRN 127) and GSAT-10 (PRN 128) at near-equatorial station Changanacherry,
Kerala.

II. OBSERVATION AND DATA ANALYSIS

Septentrio’s PolaRxS GNSS receiver was commissioned at NSS Hindu College Changanacherry,
Kerala and the S4 index data recorded by the receiver was analysed. The receiver has the capabilities to
handle multi-frequency, and multi-constellation, which observed three plasma bubbles on 02, 07, and 27
April 2017. It has an ultra-low noise oscillator frequency reference with a standard deviation of phase noise
less than 0.03 rad. The receiver generates raw data at 50 Hz sampling frequency in hourly files, and is
processed to provide the scintillation indices (S4) of 60 second resolution.
Equatorial plasma bubbles are generally observed in the post sunset period due to the gravitational
Rayleigh-Taylor instability (Aarons et al., 1980; Dabas and Reddy, 1986; Rao et al., 2006; Valladares et al.,
1986). Plasma bubbles evolve at the dip-equator, move upward mapping along field lines, and eventually
drift eastward. As the bubble intersects more of the receiver-satellite line-of-sight path, the S4 index will rise
proportionately, exhibiting the peak in the S4 index time series. When the bubble leaves the receiver-
satellite path, the scintillation will cease to exist and the S4 index values will be at a minimum. High
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© 2019 IJRAR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 1 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)
frequency fluctuations of S4 index data (L1) were filtered using a low pass filter. By choosing a sliding
window of 5 minutes, small scale/finer structures of irregularities with period less than 5 minutes were
removed (filtered out) so that plasma bubbles are easily identified. In the present analysis, for each event of
single station - multisatellite case (Figure 1) the time shift between identical peaks of the temporal variation
of S4 index observed by PRN 127 and PRN 128 are estimated using cross-correlation tool.

Fig. 1: Single station - multisatellite technique.

The S4 index peaks of GSAT-8 and GSAT-10 observed on 02, 07 and 27 of April have shown high
values of cross correlation with time delays (Figure 2), would confirm the evolution of plasma bubbles on
these dates. The ionospheric penetration points (IPPs) of the signal paths of PRN 127 and PRN 128 lie on an
E−W line at 350 km altitude are separated by an approximate horizontal distance 202 km (Figure 1) for
Changanacherry leading to an estimated drift velocity of 140.28 m/s, 82.11 m/s, and 105.21 m/s respectively
on 02, 07 and 27 April 2017.

Fig. 2: Temporal variation of S4 index of PRN 127 and PRN 128 and corresponding cross-correlations on (a) 02 April
2017, (b) 07 April 2017, and (c) 27 April 2017.

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© 2019 IJRAR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 1 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

On 02 April 2017, it was observed that S4 index values maximize (0.19) after 22:00 IST for PRN 127
followed by an identical time evolution pattern of this parameter for PRN 128 with maximization (0.15),
with a time delay of 1440 sec over Changanacherry. The cross-correlation function between S4 index time
series observed by PRN 127 and PRN 128 has only single peak with high value (0.90) clearly indicates that
both S4 index structures were due to the passage of same plasma bubble through the ray paths of GSAT-8
and GSAT-10. The ionospheric penetration points (IPP) of the signal paths of GSAT-8 (PRN 127) and
GSAT-10 (PRN 128) lie on an E−W line at 350 km altitude are separated by an approximate horizontal
distance of 202 km for Changanacherry, and the estimated velocity of plasma bubble evolution was 140.28
m/s. Similarly, there exists a good correlation of 0.86 and 0.89 between the S4 indices of two satellites on 07
and 27 April 2017, and velocities of plasma bubbles are 82.11 m/s and 105.21 m/s respectively. It is
observed from Figure 3 that as the velocity increases the average uncertainty will also increase.

Fig. 3: Velocity of plasma bubbles vs uncertainty in velocity

As the plasma bubble crosses receiver-satellite line of sight, the value of S4 index increases reaching
maximum, and decreases thereafter, forming a peak in the S4 index time series plot. The time delay for the
autocorrelation function associated with a process to become half its value is considered as the life time of
that processes. Hence, the product of velocity of plasma bubble evolution and time elapsed for
autocorrelation function of S4 index time series to become half will provide the east-west width of the
respective plasma bubble (Briggs, 1984). From table 1, it is clear that the east-west width of the plasma
bubble observed on these dates were 185.17 km, 108.36 km, and 107.31 km respectively.

Table 1: The Drift Velocity, Average uncertainty in Velocity, East-West Width of Plasma Bubbles, and Correlation
Coefficient on 02, 07, and 27 April 2017 over Changanacherry.

Average
Velocity Uncertainty in Dimension Correlation
Date of EPBs Velocity (m/s) of Bubbles Coefficient
(m/s) (km)
02-04-2017 2.92 0.90
140.28 185.17
07-04-2017 82.11 1.00 108.36 0.86
27-04-2017 105.21 1.64 107.31 0.89

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 © 2019 IJRAR March 2019, Volume 6, Issue 1 www.ijrar.org (E-ISSN 2348-1269, P- ISSN 2349-5138)

IV. CONCLUSION

The characteristics of three plasma bubbles observed over Changanacherry on 02, 07, and 27 April 2017
were studied using a simple and straight forward technique single station - multisatellite were studied here.
The velocities and east-west widths observed are matches well with previous studies (Aarons et al., 1980;
Rao et al., 2005). According to Rao et al. (2005) the east-west width of plasma irregularity may be within
the range 100-1200 km, with a more preference of variability between 100 to 500 km. The stretching of
these irregularities in north south direction will be more rapid and prominent than the east-west width. Here,
the three plasma bubbles were observed during pre-midnight hours. This is because the L-band scintillations
due to the small scale ionospheric irregularities may subside during post mid night sector, and as night
advances, the west ward electric field dominates and tries to quench the plasma bubble formation
(Chatterjee and Chakraborty, 2013; Dasgupta et al., 1985).

V. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

K. Unnikrishnan and Sreekumar Haridas are thankful to Science and Engineering Research Board
(SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India for providing financial
support to carry out this work.

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