Inter-hemispheric characterization of the ionospheric irregularities in the American sector, from Artic to Antarctica, during the solar cycles 24 and 25

• Grant number: 24/02503-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: August 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Geosciences
• Principal Investigator: Emilia Correia
• Grantee: Eduardo Perez Macho
• Host Institution: Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE). Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (Brasil). São José dos Campos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The objective of this project is to characterize the Earth's ionosphere through the mapping of amplitude scintillations of signals from Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations in the American sector during the entire 24th solar cycle (2009-2019) and the ascending phase of the 25th solar cycle (2020-2025). To accomplish that, Global Positioning System (GPS) stations that operates in all the American continent from Artic to Antarctica will be used, and amplitude scintillations using S4 and ROTI indexes will be collected. The purpose is to carry out a long-term characterization (17 years) of the ionospheric scintillations in their different time scale, covering different latitudes and longitude, from the polar regions to the tropical regions, and covering both the minimum and maximum phases of solar activity. The data that will be generated, mainly from solar cycle 25, which is being more intense than the previous one, will be important to subsidize the climatology of ionospheric irregularities. The ionospheric condition from both hemispheres will be evaluated through observations with the SuperDARN network, as a support in the climatology of medium and high latitudes. This characterization is of great interest by the technological society, at civilian and military levels. As the society modernizes and advances technologically, the study of the ionosphere becomes increasingly important, and the characterization of its conditions arouses great interest by the scientific community, because the changes in this region affect the propagation of radio waves used in the communication with satellites that orbit the Earth. In the GNSS systems, their signals that cross the ionosphere may undergo scintillations caused by ionospheric irregularities, affecting, or even precluding, the navigation from users on Earth.