Variability study of the crest-to-trough TEC ratio of the equatorial ionization anomaly around 120°E longitude

In this paper, latitudinal profiles of the vertical total electron content (TEC) deduced from the dual-frequency GPS measurements obtained at ground stations around 120°E longitude were used to study the variability of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA). The present study mainly focuses on the analysis of the crest-to-trough TEC ratio (TEC-CTR) which is an important parameter representing the strength of EIA. Data used for the present study covered the time period from 01 January, 1998 to 31 December, 2004. An empirical orthogonal function analysis method is used to obtain the main features of the TEC-CTR’s diurnal and seasonal variations as well as its solar activity level dependency. Our results showed that: (1) The diurnal variation pattern of the TEC-CTR at 120°E longitude is characterized by two remarkable peaks, one occurring in the post-noon hours around 13–14 LT, and the other occurring in the post-sunset hours around 20–21 LT, and the post-sunset peak has a much higher value than the post-noon one. (2) Both for the north and south crests, the TEC-CTR at 120°E longitude showed a semi-annual variation with maximum peak values occurring in the equinoctial months. (3) TEC-CTR for the north crest has lower values in summer than in winter, whereas TEC-CTR for the south crest does not show this ‘winter anomaly’ effect. In other words, TEC-CTR for both the north and south crests has higher values in the northern hemispheric winter than in the northern hemispheric summer. (4) TEC-CTR in the daytime post-noon hours (12–14 LT) does not vary much with the solar activity, however, TEC-CTR in the post-sunset hours (19–21 LT) shows a clear dependence on the solar activity, its values increasing with solar activity.