Latitudinal ionospheric Responses to Full Halo CMEs Induced Geomagnetic Storm

Abstract

Dominic Chukwuebuka  Obiegbuna*, Francisca Nneka Okeke, Kingsley Chukwudi Okpala, Sivla William Tafon and Orji Prince Orji

We have studied and compared the effects of full halo CMEs induced geomagnetic storms across the high, mid/equatorial and low latitude ionosphere around Ny Alesund, Norway, Irkutsk, Russia and Adis Ababa, Ethiopia. The total electron content (TEC) data obtained from the global positioning system (GPS) were used to examine the level of responses of ionospheric latitudes to full halo CMEs induced geomagnetic storms of June 23^rd 2015. This study was carried out using dual frequency ground based GNSS observations at high latitude (NYAL: 78.56^oN, 11.52^oE), mid-latitude (IRKM: 52.13^oN, 106.24^oE) and low (Adis: 9.02^oN, 38.44^oE), ionospheric stations. The vertical TEC (VTEC) was extracted from Receiver Independent Exchange (RINEX) formatted GPS-TEC data using the GOPI Software developed by Seemala Gopi. The GOPI software is a GNSS-TEC analysis program that uses ephemeris data and differential code biases (DCBs) in estimating slant TEC (STEC) before its conversion to VTEC. The result showed positive ionospheric responses of the ionospheric latitudes on the storm day. The overall responses across the latitudes to the geomagnetic storm were generally positive for the high latitude and negative for mid/equatorial and low latitudes.