Abstract:
We present the monthly, seasonal and annual
variation in the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) and
% occurrence rate of Equatorial plasma bubble (EPBs) during
the lowest to highest solar activity phase for the period
of 2002–2013. The Total Electron Content (TEC) is computed
using Global Positing System (GPS) from Bangalore
(13.02◦ N, 77.57◦ E) IGS station for the period 2002 to
2013. The total 4383 days during the period 2002–2013, out
of which 4229 days GPS data were analyzed i.e. 96.48%.
Total 1175 days data shows signature of EPBs. The average
occurrence rates of EPBs were 5.93% during the disturbed
period and 47.07% during quiet period. This shows
that the EPBs occurrence rate is higher in quiet period than
that of disturbed period. We also found that both the average
GPS-TEC and % occurrence rate of plasma bubbles are
positively correlated with solar flux for the entire 12 year
period. This study investigates the causal linkage between
EPBs and TEC using their statistics during the solar minimum
and maximum period. The studies on dynamics of
EPBs are essential because they affects the satellite communication
system, mainly due to depletions in the Total Electron
Content (TEC) which encounters most of the effects on
GPS signals.
