Observations of GPS ionospheric scintillations over Wuhan during geomagnetic storms

Abstract. During the two geomagnetic storms which occurred on 1 October 2002 and 22 January 2004, the strong ionospheric scintillations of the GPS L1 band were observed at Wuhan station (30.6° N, 114.4° E, 45.8° Dip), which is situated near the northern crest of the equatorial ionosphere anomaly. We found that the intense scintillations were associated with the main phases of the storms and were co-located with the enhancement of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA); the co-existence of large- and small-scale irregularities at post-midnight was also found. The results may be relevant regarding the influence of the equatorial ionospheric eastward electric field during geomagnetic storms. On the other hand, GPS L1 band scintillations were not observed during the other two similar storms on 16 July 2003 and 20 November 2003. One of the reasons is probably that the sporadic E layer observed at the storms inhibited the generation of spread F by changing the Pedersen conductivity and suppressing the upward plasma drift.