Using Locally Generated Magnetic Indices to Characterize the Ionosphere From Magnetic Data Acquisition System (Magdas) Ground Based Observatories in Nigeria.

This work presents an attempt to establish a baseline for geomagnetic indices in Nigeria. This is particularly very crucial since these indices give indications of the severity of magnetic fluctuations, and hence the level of disturbances in the ionosphere. K (an index which measures the magnetic perturbations of the planetary field) and A (a linear measure of the Earth's field that provides a daily average level for geomagnetic activity) geomagnetic indices were generated locally from geomagnetic data obtained using ground based MAGDAS magnetometers located at Abuja (9 ˚ 40’N, 7 ˚ 29’E), Ilorin (8˚30’N, 4˚33’E) and Lagos (6˚27’N, 3˚23’E) in Nigeria using Computer-based derivation. The indices generated were used to characterize the ionosphere over the Magdas magnetometer Nigeria network stations. Results obtained showed average K values of 3.5 (ABU), 4.60 (LAG) and 4.13 (ILR), the ionosphere over the three stations was found to be relatively active (4.08) thus setting the baseline for characterizing the ionosphere over Nigeria from ground based magnetometers