The 1st August 2010 solar storm effects on the ionosphere in the yangtze river delta region based on ground and space GPS technology

Abstract

On 1st August 2010, the entire side of the sun facing earth erupted in a frenzy of solar activity. This solar storm just like a solar tsunami, the massive multiple filaments of magnetism were released from the solar surface during the solar storm. Then these high energy particles, protons and electrons from coronal mass ejections hit against the earth's magnetic field. These hits caused intensively geomagnetic storms and ionospheric variations. Now well established ground and space based GPS instruments can offer a unique chance for a real time monitoring of ionosphere variations and characteristics. So in this paper we investigate ionospheric behavior responded to the solar storm using Ground and Space based GPS measurements. Firstly this paper describes a method of real-time solving TEC and GPS instrumental biases using Kalman filtering, so this can be used to provide absolute amount of ionospheric TEC for real-time monitoring of ionosphere changes during the solar storm. The Yangtze River Delta regional ground based GPS network measurements are used and a real-time regional ionosphere model is created, then real-time VTEC and TEC rate are also calculated. Furthermore, in order to analyze electron density structure changes during the solar storm, electron density profiles derived from GPS measurements onboard the LEO satellite COSMIC (Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate) are used. Whereas the ground based GPS measurements show horizontal distribution during the solar storm, the space based GPS measurements show a vertical distribution. Meanwhile, with consideration of the solar and geomagnetic parameter, the ionospheric anomallies with phenomenon of TEC and electron density profiles changes in the special region during the sun storm are analyzed in detail and discussed by adopting the numerical computions. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.