Variations of GPS TEC over the Antarctic region

M. MOSERT, D. ALTADILL, M. GENDE, C. BRUNINI, A.J. COSTA, L. SCIDA, S. MAGDALENO

Hermanus

Workshop; IRI Workshop 2011; 2011

This paper presents an analysis of the variations of GPS total electron content measurements obtained in the Antarctic region. The data set was collected in the Spanish Antarctic station, BAE (62.39S; 60.23 W) and in stations close to the Argentine Antarctic station, San Martín (68.1 S; 293.0 E). The study shows that the maximum diurnal value of GPSTEC is observed close to midnight and the minimum value around the noon sector in the summer months. This behaviour is more evident at high solar activity than at low solar activity. Comparisons between the GPS TEC variations and those observed in the corresponding foF2 values are analyzed. The validity of the IRI-2007 model to reproduce the total electron content is also checked.