Dynamics of large-scale ionospheric inhomogeneities caused by a powerful radio emission of the Sura facility from the data collected onto ground-based GNSS network

Abstract

© 2017, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd.The measurements of variations in the total electron content of the Earth’s ionosphere along the GPS satellite signal propagation path are described. The signal parameters were measured at a network of receivers at three distant sites: Sura (Vasilsursk), Zelenodolsk, and Kazan. They are arranged along the geomagnetic latitude of the Sura Facility under short-wave radio irradiation of the ionosphere. One feature of the experiment is the crossing of a disturbed region by the radio path between a GPS satellite and Vasilsursk. This resulted from the angular sizes of the Sura array pattern; the radio paths between a GPS satellite and Zelenodolsk and a GPS satellite and Kazan did not cross. Variations in the total electron content of up to 0.15−0.3 TECU were revealed at all three sites during four experimental campaigns (March 2010, March 2013, May 2013, and November 2013). The lateral scale of an ionospheric disturbance stimulated by a high-power radio wave and the velocity of its west-to-east propagation along the geomagnetic latitude were 30–60 km and 270–350 m/s, respectively. A decrease in the total electron content (down to 0.55 TECU) was recorded along the Kazan–Zelenodolsk–Vasilsurks line, which is connected with the solar terminator transit; the lateral scale of the related ionospheric inhomogeneities was ~65–80 km.