Nighttime enhancements in ionospheric electron content: seasonal and solar cycle variation

Various characteristics of anomalous nighttime enhancement in ionospheric electron content (IEC) at Lunping (14.08°N geomagnetic), a station near the crest of the equatorial anomaly, have been presented by considering the IEC data for the 21st solar cycle. Out of a total of 1053 enhancements, 354 oc...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: S. Jain, S. K. Vijay, A. K. Gwal, Y. N. Huang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Copernicus Publications
Series:Annales Geophysicae
Online Access:http://www.ann-geophys.net/13/256/1995/angeo-13-256-1995.html
Description
Summary:Various characteristics of anomalous nighttime enhancement in ionospheric electron content (IEC) at Lunping (14.08°N geomagnetic), a station near the crest of the equatorial anomaly, have been presented by considering the IEC data for the 21st solar cycle. Out of a total of 1053 enhancements, 354 occur in pre-midnight and 699 occur in post-midnight hours, which indicates an overall dominance of post-midnight events at Lunping. The occurrence is more frequent during summer, less during the equinox and least during winter months. All the characteristics of the enhancements have seasonal dependencies and they reach their maximum values during summer months. The occurrence of the pre-midnight events show positive and post-midnight events show negative correlation with solar activity. The results have been discussed and compared with those at low-latitude stations in India and Hawaii and at the mid-latitude station, Tokyo.
ISSN:0992-7689
1432-0576