Demarcation of solar cycle 24 and characterization of ionospheric GPS-TEC towards the western part of India

摘要

We analyze the behavior of Total Electron Content (TEC) in the Ionosphere using the GPS data between 2009 and 2017 towards the western part of India. The GPS data used in the present study consists of 22 Continuously Operating Reference Sites (CORS), bounded between 20(0)- 24(0) N Latitude and 68(0) -74(0) E Longitude. All the GPS data used in the study are generated using the Leica 1200 receivers and AX1202GG antennas with a sampling interval of 0.03 Hz. The TEC value of this study is calculated using the L-band GPS frequencies L1 (1575.42 MHz) and L2 (1227.36 MHz). The results reveal maximum TEC values during the daytime (03.30-04.30 IST) for all the years and a maximum of 120 TECu (TEC unit) was observed during the year 2014. The reflection of seasonal variation was visible in the time-series of TEC in all the years, while E season (March, April, September and October) observed maximum TEC values in all the stations. The mean monthly TEC values of the present study illustrate the solar cycle-24 and the coefficient of correlation (r(2)) of 0.74 indicates a close relationship between the sunspot number and TEC values. A fall of 35% TECu was observed on the annular solar eclipse day on 15 January 2010.