Global Morphology of Ionospheric Scintillations

Abstract

Stilting with post World War II studies of fading of radio star sources and continuing with fading of satellite signals of Sputnik, vast quantities of data have built up on the effect of ionospheric irregularities on signals from beyond the F layer. The review attempts to organize the available amplitude and phase scintillation data into equatorial, middle-, and high-latitude morphologies. The effect of magnetic activity, solar sunspot cycle, and time of day is shown for each of these three latitudinal sectors. The effect of the very high levels of solar flux during the past sunspot maximum of 1979-1981 is stressed. During these years unusually high levels of scintillation were noted near the peak of the Appleton equatorial anomaly (~±15° from the magnetic equator) as well as over polar latitudes. New data on phase fluctuations are summarized for the auroral zone with its sheet-like irregularity structure. © 1982 IEEE