Statistical Case Studies of High and Low Latitude Ionospheric Scintillations

Ionospheric scintillations are fluctuations in amplitude and phase of the radio wave signal passing through the ionosphere on its path to the receiver, caused by small scale irregularities in the electron density structure [1]. Occurrence of scintillation depends on various factors, such as: solar activity, geomagnetic conditions, geo-location of the receiver, time of day, angle of signal arrival, ionospheric structure geometry and many others [1-6]. Causing signals disturbances and distortion, scintillation can significantly affect the GNSS accuracy and cause severe problems to commercial navigation systems. Scintillating signals can be classified by the intensity of fluctuations into categories of weak and strong scintillations. High and low magnetic latitudes represent the most affected regions by ionospheric irregular structures in F and E ionospheric layers. While phase scintillations are more pronounced in the sub-polar and polar regions, amplitude scintillations are significantly stronger and more pronounced in near equatorial regions [7-10]