HR: 1330h
AN: SH42A-0496    [PDF]
TI: An Analysis on the TEC Variability and Ionospheric Scintillation at Los Alamos, New Mexico Derived from FORTE-Received LAPP Signals
AU: * Huang, Z
EM: zhen_huang@lanl.gov
AU: Roussel-Dupre, R
EM: rroussel-dupre@lanl.gov
AB: The total electron content (TEC) of ionosphere and its electron density irregularities (scintillation) have effects of degradation and disruption on radio signals passed between ground stations and orbiting man-made satellites. With the rapid increase in operational reliance on UHF/VHF satellite communication, it is desirable to obtain understandings of ionosphere TEC variability and scintillation characteristics to improve our ability of predicting satellite communication outages. In this work, data collected from FORTE satellite received LAPP (Los Alamos Portable Pulser) signals during 1998-2002 are used to derive TEC and ionospheric scintillation index at Los Alamos, New Mexico. To characterize in-situ TEC variability at Los Alamos, the FORTE-LAPP derived TECs are analyzed against diurnal, seasonal, solar activity, magnetic storm, and stratospheric warming. The results are also compared with the TEC estimates from the Los Alamos ionospheric transfer function (ITF) implemented with the global ionospheric models (IRI, PIM), and GPS -derived TEC maps. The FORTE-LAPP signals are also analyzed against two important measures of the effect of scintillation on broadband signals, the mean time delay and the time delay jitter. The results are used to examine coherence frequency bandwidth and compared with the predictions from a global scintillation model (WBMOD). The FORTE-LAPP analyzed and WBMOD predicted scintillation characteristics are used to investigate temporal and seasonal behavior of scintillation at Los Alamos.
DE: 2400 IONOSPHERE
DE: 2439 Ionospheric irregularities
DE: 2443 Midlatitude ionosphere
DE: 2447 Modeling and forecasting
DE: 2487 Wave propagation (6934)
SC: SPA - Solar and Heliospheric Physics [SH]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting