IONISE: An Ionospheric Observational Network for Irregularity and Scintillation in East and Southeast Asia
Wenjie Sun, Baoyuan Wu, Zhi Wu, Lianhuan Hu, Xiukuan Zhao, Jianchang Zheng, Haiyong Xie, Sipeng Yang, Baiqi Ning, Guozhu Li
Abstract
Abstract An Ionospheric Observational Network for Irregularity and Scintillation in East and Southeast Asia (IONISE) is developed to identify and study the short‐term and fine‐scale ionospheric variations over China. The IONISE network mainly includes three crossed chains of Beidou geostationary satellite total electron content (TEC)/scintillation receivers along 110°E, 23°N, and 40°N respectively, multistatic portable digital ionosondes and bistatic very high‐frequency radars. Based on the IONISE observations, we report some preliminary results of ionospheric disturbances and irregularities, including (1) initially generated and zonally drifting equatorial plasma bubbles and related scintillations, (2) traveling ionospheric disturbances from middle to low latitudes, (3) drift of strong sporadic E structures over a wide area of more than 1,000 km, (4) fine‐scale ionospheric perturbation and regional TEC gradient, and (5) general features of ionospheric response to geomagnetic storms. Possible mechanisms responsible for these ionospheric phenomena are discussed. The IONISE provides new data set for investigation on ionospheric disturbances of various scales in a broad region with dense observations along specific latitude/longitude.