Using Rate of Change of Total

Electron Content to Determine the

Occurrence of Ionospheric
Scintillation over the Philippine
Sector on March 2015

Kyle Ezekiel S. Juadines

Merlin M. Mendoza
Ernest P. Macalalad
 OUTLINE
• Introduction
• The Atmosphere and the Ionosphere
• Ionospheric Variation
• Geographic
• Time
• Solar Cycle
• Ionospheric Scintillation
• Process
• Rate of the TEC Index (RoTI)
• GPS Stations
• Data
• Summary

1
The Atmosphere and the Ionosphere

Profiles of the ionosphere based on temperature

(Left) and plasma density (Right).

2
 Ionospheric Variation (Geographic)

• Weak at the High-Latitudes

• Moderate at the Polar Region
• Strong at the Low-Latitudes
• Intense at the Equatorial Region

3
Ionospheric Variation (Time)

The TEC (Total Electron Content) refers to the number of

electrons per square meter integrated along a straight line.
*1 TECU = 1016 electrons/m2

4
 Ionospheric Variation (Solar Cycle)

Solar Maximum = high sunspot number

1 Solar Cycle = 11 - years
Solar Minimum = low sunspot number

5
 Ionospheric Scintillation

• Temporal fluctuations in the radio wave signals

6
 Process

Fluctuations
Fluctuations in
in
Ionospheric
Ionospheric Ionospheric
Ionospheric
Seed
Seed the
the refractive
refractive
Irregularities
Irregularities Scintillation
Scintillation
index
index

7
 Rate of the TEC Index (RoTI)

• Mathematical Equations

LGF ≡ The Geometry-Free Phase Combination L1 = 1.57542 GHz

RoT ≡ Rate of Total Electron Content L2 = 1.22760 GHz
Ln ≡ Phase Measurement λ1 = c/ L1 m
λn ≡ Wavelength λ2 = c/ L2 m
fn ≡ frequency ∆t = 1/60
∆t ≡ time difference between Epochs

8
 Rate of the TEC Index (RoTI)

• Mathematical Equations

Finally,
  𝑖
𝑅𝑜𝑇𝐼 ( 𝑖 )=
1
𝑁√ ∑
𝑗 =𝑖− 𝑁
¿¿¿

N ≡ Epochs
RoTI ≡ Rate of TEC Index

9
GPS Stations

10
11
 Summary

1 13