Response of equatorial, low-, mid- and high-latitude F-region in the American sector during the intense geomagnetic storm on 24 - 25 October 201

R. DE JESUS; Y. SAHAI; P.R. FAGUNDES; A.J. DE ABREU; C. BRUNINI; M. GENDE; J.A. BITTENCOURT; V.G. PILLAT

San Francisco.

Congreso; AGU 2012; 2012

American Geophysical Union

The main objective of this investigation is to study the ionospheric F region (in the equatorial, low-, mid- and high-latitude in the American sector) response induced by the intense geomagnetic storm that occurred on 24 - 25 October 2011. Simultaneous ionospheric sounding measurements (ionospheric parameters minimum F-region virtual height, h´F, and F-region critical frequency, foF2) from five stations, viz., Puerto Rico (18.5ºN, 67.2ºW; dip latitude 26.5ºN; mid-latitude station), United States, Jicamarca (12.0ºS, 76.8ºW, dip latitude 0.13ºS; equatorial station), Peru, Palmas (10.2° S, 48.2° W; dip latitude 07.2ºS; a near-equatorial station), São José dos Campos (23.2º S, 45.9º W; dip latitude 19.1ºS; low-latitude station), Brazil, and Port Stanley (51.6ºS, 57.9ºW, dip latitude 31.5ºS; mid-latitude station), are presented for the days 23 (quiet), 24, 25 and 26/10/2011 (main and recovery phases). The complementary Global Positioning System (GPS) data available from 12 receiving stations in the equatorial, low-, mid- and high-latitude F region in the American sector have been used to obtain the measures of the Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) and rate of change of TEC per minute (phase fluctuation) on UT days 23, 24, 25 and 26 October 2011. For this event, four quiet day observations on 22, 23, 28 and 29/10/2011 around the storm event are used to calculate the average and standard deviations of ionospheric parameters (h’F and foF2) and VTEC during the quiet period, for comparison with the observations during the disturbed period. Important features observed during this investigation will be presented and discussed.