Study of the ionospheric total electron content over central India using artificial neural network

Abstract

The ionosphere over central India falls very close to the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) region where sharp latitudinal gradient in the ionization is observed. It is expected that as the sun shines over the geographic equator, the ion and electron density should be maximum around that region and will go on decreasing towards the poles but the measured values show this density to have a peculiar crest around ± 15◦ magnetic latitude and trough around the magnetic equator. The latitudes which fall in the EIA region has the highest concentration of electron density and it is roughly about 2/3rd of the global density distribution. A vital parameter to study the ionosphere of the EIA region is the Total Electron Content (TEC) which gets enhanced or depleted according to varying solar activities which originate from the sun in the forms of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and solar flares. TEC also show seasonal variations. © 2019 URSI. All rights reserved.