Characteristics of Ionospheric Scintillation in Chengdu, China

Abstract. When wireless electromagnetic waves pass through the earth's atmosphere, they are affected by ionospheric irregularities, and their amplitude and phase will jitter rapidly in a short period of time, which is called ionospheric scintillation. With the human exploration of outer space and the demand for space communication, the study of ionospheric scintillation characteristics and its influence on electromagnetic communication has become increasingly important. This paper used the observation data received by GPS scintillation/TEC receivers in the Chengdu (104.07° N, 30.67° E) area of China from January 2018 to September 2020, and a data processing program was developed for the received GPS/BDS/GAL. The satellite data at multiple frequency points were processed to extract key data such as S4, azimuth angle, and elevation angle, and then the annual changes in ionospheric scintillation in the Chengdu region and the characteristics of local time changes were statistically analysed. The results show that the frequency and intensity of ionospheric scintillation events have obvious half-year changes. The scintillation intensity and frequency in spring and autumn are higher and more frequent than those in summer and winter; and scintillation events mainly occur at night. but they also occur during the day, mostly in the afternoon; and their occurrence is related to the airspace and is further closely related to the elevation and azimuth angles of the observation point. The overall scintillation events from 2018 to 2020 were in a gradual downward trend. At the end of May 2018, a scintillation event with a longer duration occurred. Further analysis showed that the occurrence of scintillation events increased with the rapid changes in solar activity and the geomagnetic environment. There is a certain positive correlation between the changes.