vTEC in the Equatorial Anomaly Region from Satellite Altimetry Data

AZPILICUETA FRANCISCO; BRUNINI CLAUDIO

Buenos Aires

Workshop; International Reference Ionosphere Workshop; 2006

Committee on Space Research (COSPAR)

The high-precision demands imposed by the ocean altimetry community of the late ’80 resulted in the TOPEX/Poseidon mission. This mission was the first to carry as its main instrument a dual-frequency sea-altimeter on board a satellite. This instrument together with other high-standard technologies involved in the mission, provided sea-height determinations with centimeter precision. As a by-product, TOPEX/Poseidon mission provided vTEC determinations that since they became available, have demonstrated to be a powerful tool for ionospheric studies.   The orbital configuration of the satellite provides a sparse vTEC sample distribution that limits the studies of short time variations of the vTEC distribution at a regional or global scale. Nevertheless, when using TOPEX vTEC observations for periods of several days, it is possible to obtain global maps of the mean vTEC distribution. This contribution presents a way in which TOPEX observations can be used to obtain information about the main characteristic of the vTEC behavior in the equatorial anomaly region.