Study of Low-latitude Ionospheric Scintillation using NavIC

Equatorial ionospheric irregularities have been studied in the past and have produced interesting insights about ionospheric physics and processes. Here, we present the initial results of a long term study of ionosphere near the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) using the Navigation with the Indian Constellation (NavIC). We have characterized the ionospheric irregularities in terms of the power spectral density at different dynamical frequencies. The formalism is similar to as suggested by [1–3] using the phase screen modelling of the ionosphere. The observations of the C/N0 (dB-Hz) variation have been taken by utilizing the L5 (1176.45 MHz) signal of NavIC over Indore located near the northern crest of EIA. We show some initial results as a proof of concept study from a single day (December 4, 2017) scintillation observations. This is a first of its kind study in this region with NavIC. From the power spectral density analysis, we have demonstrated that NavIC is capable of detecting such irregularities over long periods over this region and has implications in forecasting such events in the future. This work will be followed up with a detailed study of scintillation analysis over two years by Ayyagari et, al. 2021 (in prep.) and with the corresponding phase screen analysis by Chakraborty, et, al. 2021 (in prep.).