Statistical features of ionospheric scintillation over McMurdo, Antarctica during disturbed and quiet geomagnetic conditions: a comparative analysis

This paper presents statistical features of the ionospheric scintillation observations over McMurdo (77.88°S, 166.73°E; geomagnetic latitude 80°N), Antarctica during the period of 2011-2014. Using the occurrence rate of ionospheric phase scintillation as a function of geomagnetic latitude (MLAT) and magnetic local time (MLT) under the disturbed and quiet geomagnetic conditions respectively, we comparatively analyzed the diurnal variation of phase scintillation and its dependence on season and solar activities. We find that the phase scintillation mainly occurred near magnetic noon and near magnetic midnight during both disturbed and quiet geomagnetic conditions, but it occurred higher at disturbed geomagnetic conditions, expanding toward both poleward and equatorward geomagnetic latitude.Seasonally, the scintillation occurrence is significantly higher in spring and autumn than in summer and winter, with the highest rate during February to March, September to October and the weakest rate during June in winter, which has been obviously presented during disturbed conditions. With stronger solar activity, yearly maps of occurrence of phase scintillation show gradually increase and expand of enhanced scintillation regions. These results can help to obtain the ionospheric scintillation distribution and provide support for the ionospheric scintillation modeling and prediction, which has important application value for the communication and navigation positioning in the polar region.