Behaviour of the total electron content over three European stations

MOSERT, M.; GENDE, M.; BRUNINI, C.; EZQUER, R.

São José dos Campos

Workshop; IRI Workshop 2011; 2011

This paper extends previous studies of the behavior of the vertical total electron content obtained with GPS satellites signals (GPSTEC) and total electron content derived from Digisondes (ITEC). The data base includes ionograms and GPS observations recorded at El Arenosillo (37.1N; 353.3E), Pruhonice (50.0N; 15.0E) and Ebro (40.8N; 0.5E) during different seasonal and solar activity conditions. The quantitative differences between GPSTEC and ITEC (due to the contribution from the plasmasphere) are also analyzed as a function of the hour of the day, season, solar activity and latitude. Comparisons between observations and the corresponding IRI-2007 predictions are also done. The diurnal, seasonal and solar activity variations of the two TEC estimations (GPSTEC and ITEC) show the good correlation between the two techniques. The percentage contribution of TEC is more significant at night in all seasons and stations reaching peaks around sunrise and sunset and it shows seasonal, solar activity and latitude dependence