Ionospheric Perturbations

While "normal" ionospheric conditions have little influence on most applications using trans-ionospheric radiolinks, disturbed conditions are a challenge for many. Ionospheric perturbations cause signal degradation and even loss of signal which in turn causes a degradation of system functionality and failures. Measures of ionospheric perturbations provided here are scintillations, rate of change of TEC index (ROTI) and equivalent slab thickness.

Rate of Change of TEC Index

The Rate of TEC index (ROTI) is defined as standard deviation of the rate of TEC (ROT) assuming the ionosphere as a thin layer. Hence the index provides information about temporal ionospheric irregularities.

Equivalent Slab Thickness

The equivalent slab thickness is a measure of the width of the shape of the vertical electron density profile of the ionosphere. The equivalent slab thickness is defined by the ratio of the total electron content (TEC) and the peak electron density NmF2 of the ionosphere’s F2 layer.

Electron Density

The figures provide a first estimation of the three dimensional electron density distributions around the globe.

Swarm Ionospheric Gradients

Precision and safety-of-life applications using trans-ionospheric signals require key information on space weather conditions, in particular, on the perturbation degree of the ionosphere. Such systems are especially vulnerable against severe spatial gradients and rapid changes of the electron density (Ne), as well as the total electron content (TEC) measured along different satellite‐receiver links. Two new Swarm products are demonstrated:

Local Scintillation Measurements

Disturbance Ionosphere IndeX Spatial Gradients (DIX-SG)

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