Identifying equatorial plasma bubble evolution with scintillation index–A case study

Plasma bubbles are ionospheric irregularities that can often occur at night and finds equatorial ionosphere as the most favorable place for its onset. This study focusses on characterizing plasma bubble evolution using multifrequency Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receiver system at Changanacherry (1.03°N,149.63 °E). Single station- multi satellite technique is employed here by tracking two geostationary Indian satellites GSAT-8 (PRN 127) and GSAT-10 (PRN-128) for the period from 2018 to 2020. Two events are taken for the study, each from the year 2019 (Event 1) and 2020 (Event 2). Based on the observations, morphological features of drift velocity, and East -West width of plasma bubbles were analyzed and compared. The relation between probable LT of occurrence of plasma bubbles and its drift velocity is also investigated.