Description
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Ionospheric storms consist of disturbances of the upper atmosphere that generate regions of enhanced electron density typically lasting several hours. Depending upon the storm magnitude, gradients in electron density can sometimes become large and highly localized. The existence of such localized, dense irregularities is a major source of positioning error for users of the Global Positioning System (GPS). Consequently, satellite-based augmentation systems have been implemented to improve the accuracy and to ensure the integrity of user position estimates derived from GPS measurements. Large-scale irregularities generally do not pose a serious threat to estimate integrity as they can be readily detected by such systems. Of greater concern, however, are highly localized irregularities that interfere with the propagation of a signal detected by a user measurement but are poorly sampled by the receivers in the system network. The most challenging conditions have been found to arise following disturbances of large magnitude that occur only rarely over the course of a solar cycle. These extremely disturbed conditions exhibit behavior distinct from moderately disturbed conditions and, hence, have been designated "extreme storms". In this paper we examine and compare the behavior of the extreme ionospheric storms of solar cycle 23 (or, more precisely, extreme storms occurring between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2008), as represented in maps of vertical total electron content. To identify these storms, we present a robust means of quantifying the regional magnitude of an ionospheric storm. Ionospheric storms are observed frequently to occur in conjunction with magnetic storms, i.e., periods of geophysical activity as measured by magnetometers. While various geomagnetic indices, such as the disturbance storm time (Dst) and the planetary Kp index, have long been used to rank the magnitudes of distinct magnetic storms, no comparable, generally recognized index exists for measuring ionospheric storm magnitudes. Since the level of ionospheric disturbance (as represented, for example, by enhancements or depletions in total electron content) does not always scale directly with the level of geophysical disturbance in a coincident magnetic storm, however, an independent, purely ionospheric storm index is preferable for ranking ionospheric storms by their magnitudes. Our storm magnitude metric is calculated from the standard χ2 goodness-of-fit parameter values associated with estimates of vertical total electron content (derived from observations collected by networks of GPS receivers) on a grid at regularly spaced intervals of geodetic latitude and longitude. It takes into account both the instantaneous magnitude of the storm and its temporal duration.
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