Data from the DPS-4 digisonde and the GPS L-band ionospheric scintillation monitor are employed to study the correlations between strong range spread-F （SSF） and GPS L-band scintillations observed in the ionosphere ...Data from the DPS-4 digisonde and the GPS L-band ionospheric scintillation monitor are employed to study the correlations between strong range spread-F （SSF） and GPS L-band scintillations observed in the ionosphere over Hainan Island, China （19.5°N, 109.1°E geogr., dip lat. 9°N） in 2004. The SSF in the ionogram is different from the general range spread-F because it extends in frequency well beyond FoF2 and makes FoF2 difficult to be determined. The observations show that the SSF phenomenon is frequently accompanied by the occurrence of GPS L-band scintillations. The SSF and GPS L-band scintillations occur frequently in the equinoctial months （March, April, September, and October）, but rarely in the winter （January, February, November, and December） and summer （May-August）; especially, occurrence variations of the SSF and GPS L-band scintillations nearly have a same trend. The SSF and scintillations may be associated with the occurrence of topside plasma bubbles and could be explained by the eneralized Rayleigh-Taylor instability.展开更多
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No 40621003 and 40674091, and the Specialized Research Fund for State Key Laboratories of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China.
文摘Data from the DPS-4 digisonde and the GPS L-band ionospheric scintillation monitor are employed to study the correlations between strong range spread-F （SSF） and GPS L-band scintillations observed in the ionosphere over Hainan Island, China （19.5°N, 109.1°E geogr., dip lat. 9°N） in 2004. The SSF in the ionogram is different from the general range spread-F because it extends in frequency well beyond FoF2 and makes FoF2 difficult to be determined. The observations show that the SSF phenomenon is frequently accompanied by the occurrence of GPS L-band scintillations. The SSF and GPS L-band scintillations occur frequently in the equinoctial months （March, April, September, and October）, but rarely in the winter （January, February, November, and December） and summer （May-August）; especially, occurrence variations of the SSF and GPS L-band scintillations nearly have a same trend. The SSF and scintillations may be associated with the occurrence of topside plasma bubbles and could be explained by the eneralized Rayleigh-Taylor instability.
