American Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering

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Ionospheric TEC Response to Geomagnetic Storms Occurred on 15-20 March 2013 and 2015 over the Eastern Africa Region

Received: 12 April 2019    Accepted: 29 May 2019    Published: 13 December 2019
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Abstract

In this paper we present characteristics of the ionosphere over eastern Africa region in response to two geomagnetic storms of March 2013 and March 2015 that occurred at the same date and time but with different intensities. Ionospheric TEC has been derived from the IGS network of ground based dual-frequency GPS receivers from four stations, namely Eldoret (0.29°N, 35.29°E), Dodoma (6.19°S, 35.75°E), Malindi (2.99°S, 40.19°E) and Mtwara (10.26°S, 40.17°E) within the Eastern Africa region. The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) Bz and corresponding Dst index, solar wind speed (Vsw) and density (Np) were used to represent the evolution of the storm events. Our results showed that, the behavior of the ionosphere over eastern Africa region during the two geomagnetic storms was similar. During both storms the main phases occurred on 17th of March. However, the main phase of the storm in 2015 had more intensity than that of 2013 but the same duration, and they were followed by a long-duration slow recovery with values that did not return to levels prior to the onset of the storm. The enhancement and reduction of TECv were observed at almost all stations at different times. The results from both storms also show that, there was a pre-reversal enhancement especially at stations that lie close to the equatorial region compared to the stations far from the equatorial region.

DOI 10.11648/j.ajese.20190304.16
Published in American Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering (Volume 3, Issue 4, December 2019)
Page(s) 103-111
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Geomagnetic Storm, Total Electron Content (TEC), Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF), Solar Wind

References
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  • APA Style

    Emmanuel Daudi Sulungu, Christian Uiso. (2019). Ionospheric TEC Response to Geomagnetic Storms Occurred on 15-20 March 2013 and 2015 over the Eastern Africa Region. American Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering, 3(4), 103-111. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajese.20190304.16

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    ACS Style

    Emmanuel Daudi Sulungu; Christian Uiso. Ionospheric TEC Response to Geomagnetic Storms Occurred on 15-20 March 2013 and 2015 over the Eastern Africa Region. Am. J. Environ. Sci. Eng. 2019, 3(4), 103-111. doi: 10.11648/j.ajese.20190304.16

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    AMA Style

    Emmanuel Daudi Sulungu, Christian Uiso. Ionospheric TEC Response to Geomagnetic Storms Occurred on 15-20 March 2013 and 2015 over the Eastern Africa Region. Am J Environ Sci Eng. 2019;3(4):103-111. doi: 10.11648/j.ajese.20190304.16

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ajese.20190304.16,
      author = {Emmanuel Daudi Sulungu and Christian Uiso},
      title = {Ionospheric TEC Response to Geomagnetic Storms Occurred on 15-20 March 2013 and 2015 over the Eastern Africa Region},
      journal = {American Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering},
      volume = {3},
      number = {4},
      pages = {103-111},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajese.20190304.16},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajese.20190304.16},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajese.20190304.16},
      abstract = {In this paper we present characteristics of the ionosphere over eastern Africa region in response to two geomagnetic storms of March 2013 and March 2015 that occurred at the same date and time but with different intensities. Ionospheric TEC has been derived from the IGS network of ground based dual-frequency GPS receivers from four stations, namely Eldoret (0.29°N, 35.29°E), Dodoma (6.19°S, 35.75°E), Malindi (2.99°S, 40.19°E) and Mtwara (10.26°S, 40.17°E) within the Eastern Africa region. The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) Bz and corresponding Dst index, solar wind speed (Vsw) and density (Np) were used to represent the evolution of the storm events. Our results showed that, the behavior of the ionosphere over eastern Africa region during the two geomagnetic storms was similar. During both storms the main phases occurred on 17th of March. However, the main phase of the storm in 2015 had more intensity than that of 2013 but the same duration, and they were followed by a long-duration slow recovery with values that did not return to levels prior to the onset of the storm. The enhancement and reduction of TECv were observed at almost all stations at different times. The results from both storms also show that, there was a pre-reversal enhancement especially at stations that lie close to the equatorial region compared to the stations far from the equatorial region.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Ionospheric TEC Response to Geomagnetic Storms Occurred on 15-20 March 2013 and 2015 over the Eastern Africa Region
    AU  - Emmanuel Daudi Sulungu
    AU  - Christian Uiso
    Y1  - 2019/12/13
    PY  - 2019
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajese.20190304.16
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajese.20190304.16
    T2  - American Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering
    JF  - American Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering
    JO  - American Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering
    SP  - 103
    EP  - 111
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2578-7993
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajese.20190304.16
    AB  - In this paper we present characteristics of the ionosphere over eastern Africa region in response to two geomagnetic storms of March 2013 and March 2015 that occurred at the same date and time but with different intensities. Ionospheric TEC has been derived from the IGS network of ground based dual-frequency GPS receivers from four stations, namely Eldoret (0.29°N, 35.29°E), Dodoma (6.19°S, 35.75°E), Malindi (2.99°S, 40.19°E) and Mtwara (10.26°S, 40.17°E) within the Eastern Africa region. The interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) Bz and corresponding Dst index, solar wind speed (Vsw) and density (Np) were used to represent the evolution of the storm events. Our results showed that, the behavior of the ionosphere over eastern Africa region during the two geomagnetic storms was similar. During both storms the main phases occurred on 17th of March. However, the main phase of the storm in 2015 had more intensity than that of 2013 but the same duration, and they were followed by a long-duration slow recovery with values that did not return to levels prior to the onset of the storm. The enhancement and reduction of TECv were observed at almost all stations at different times. The results from both storms also show that, there was a pre-reversal enhancement especially at stations that lie close to the equatorial region compared to the stations far from the equatorial region.
    VL  - 3
    IS  - 4
    ER  - 

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Author Information
  • Department of Physics, College of Natural and Mathematical Sciences, The University of Dodoma, Dodoma, Tanzania

  • Department of Physics, College of Natural and Applied Sciences, University of Dares Salaam, Dares salaam, Tanzania

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