Behaviour of electron content in the ionospheric d-region during solar x-ray flares

2016
Authors
Todorović-Drakul, Miljana
Cadez, V.M.
Bajcetić, J.
Popović, L. C.
Blagojević, Dragan
Nina, A.

Article (Published version)
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
One of the most important parameters in ionospheric plasma research, also having a wide practical application in wireless satellite telecommunications, is the total electron content (TEC) representing the columnal electron number density. The F-region with high electron density provides the biggest contribution to TEC while the relatively weakly ionized plasma of the D-region (60 km 90 km above Earth's surface) is often considered as a negligible cause of satellite signal disturbances. However, sudden intensive ionization processes, like those induced by solar X-ray flares, can cause relative increases of electron density that are significantly larger in the D-region than in regions at higher altitudes. Therefore, one cannot exclude a priori the D-region from investigations of ionospheric influences on propagation of electromagnetic signals emitted by satellites. We discuss here this problem which has not been sufficiently treated in literature so far. The obtained results are based on... data collected from the D-region monitoring by very low frequency radio waves and on vertical TEC calculations from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signal analyses, and they show noticeable variations in the D-region's electron content (TECD) during activity of a solar X-ray flare (it rises by a factor of 136 in the considered case) when TECD contribution to TEC can reach several percent and which cannot be neglected in practical applications like global positioning procedures by satellites.
Keywords:
solar-terrestrial relations / Sun: activity / Sun: flares / Sun: X-rays, gamma raysSource:
Serbian Astronomical Journal, 2016, 193, 11-18Publisher:
- Astronomska opservatorija, Beograd i Univerzitet u Beogradu - Matematički fakultet - Odeljenje za astronomiju, Beograd
Projects:
- Astroinformatics: application of IT in astronomy and close fields (RS-44002)
- Astrophysical Spectroscopy of Extragalactic Objects (RS-176001)
- Influence of collisions on astrophysical plasma spectra (RS-176002)
- Stellar physics (RS-176004)
- Serbian geodetic infrastructure advancement for the needs of a modern state survey (RS-36020)
DOI: 10.2298/SAJ160404006T
ISSN: 1450-698X