Seasonal variations of nighttime D-region ionosphere in 2013 solar maximum observed from a low-latitude station

Abstract We present the observation of tweek atmospherics with harmonics m = 1–8 during the solar maximum year, 2013, at Tay Nguyen University, Vietnam (Geog. 12.65° N, 108.02° E). The analysis of 33,690 tweeks on ten international quiet days during 2 months each season, summer (May, August), winter (February, November), and equinox (March, September), shows that tweeks occur about 51 % during summer, 22 % during winter, and 27 % during equinox. The D-region ionosphere is more sharply bounded for harmonics m = 5–6 around an altitude of 85.5 km. The environment of the D-region is more inhomogeneous during winter and equinox seasons. The mean electron density varies from 28.4–225 cm −3, which corresponds to the harmonics m = 1–8 at the mean reflection height of 81.5–87.7 km. The results reveal that the lower reference height in our work as compared to other works is due to the higher level of solar activity. The equivalent electron density profile of the nighttime D-region ionosphere using tweek method during summer, equinox, and winter seasons shows lower values of electron density by 12–58 %, 3–67 %, and 24–76 % than those obtained using the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI-2012) model