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Constructing a global ionospheric TEC map with a high spatial and temporal resolution by spherical harmonic functions

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Abstract

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Haystack Observatory provides the ionospheric Total Electron Content (TEC) data with a temporal resolution of 5 minutes and limited spatial coverage, as they do not provide data where there are no TEC measurements. To improve the spatial coverage of MIT-TEC, we have proposed an approach for constructing a global ionospheric map of TEC with a time resolution of 5 minutes and a grid spacing of 1° × 1° in latitude and longitude. The global ionospheric TEC map constructed by the spherical harmonic (SH) function and MIT-TEC (SHMIT-TEC) is compared with the original MIT-TEC data. The results show that SHMIT-TEC can clearly present the properties of the ionospheric distribution. The average values of Standard Deviations (STDs) between SHMIT-TEC and MIT-TEC are about 4.1448 TECU and 3.1382 TECU in the high solar activity year (2003) and low solar activity year (2008), respectively. Compared to TECs provided by the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE), SHMIT-TEC can also accurately reflect the diurnal and latitudinal variations of the ionospheric TEC. Furthermore, SHMIT-TEC is utilized to investigate the ionospheric response to the solar flare on 28 October 2003. The results show that the SHMIT-TEC updated in 5 minutes can accurately detect the time of obvious TEC enhancement (11:07 universal time, UT) induced by the solar flare, which is in accordance with the peak times of X-ray flux in 0.1–0.8 nm (11:10 UT) measured by the Geostationary Operational Environment Satellite and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) fluxes (11:06 UT) observed from the solar EUV monitor experiment. In contrast to MIT-TEC and CODE-TEC, SHMIT-TEC with global coverage and high temporal and spatial resolution can monitor the ionospheric TEC response to space weather events quickly and effectively.

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Data Availability

GPS TEC data are downloaded from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (available at http://madrigal.iggcas.ac.cn/madrigal/). CODE-GIM data can be accessed at ftp://cddis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gps/products/ionex/. The H-alpha solar flare reports and X-ray flux data are provided by the National Geophysical Data Center (ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/). The EUV flux data are from the solar extreme ultraviolet monitor on board SOHO (available at http://www.usc.edu/).

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for providing GPS TEC data products. We thank CODE for providing GIM data. We also thank the National Geophysical Data Center for providing H-alpha solar flare reports and X-ray flux data. The authors extended their acknowledgment to the University of Southern California for providing the EUV flux data.

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Funds of Hebei (Grant No. D2022502001 and D2019502010), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2018MS128), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41574151, 41574162, and 41404127) and the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (2014AA123503). GPS TEC data products and access through the Madrigal distributed data system are provided to the community by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with the support of the US National Science Foundation (Grant No. AGS-1242204).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Mathematics and Physics, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, 071003, China

    Bo Xiong, Yuqing Wang & Yuxiao Li

  2. Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Bo Xiong, Xiaolin Li & You Yu

  3. Beijing National Observatory of Space Environment, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Bo Xiong, Xiaolin Li & You Yu

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  1. Bo Xiong
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  2. Yuqing Wang
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  3. Xiaolin Li
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  4. Yuxiao Li
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Contributions

The authors Bo Xiong, Yuqing Wang, Xiaolin Li, and Yuxiao Li are involved in writing the manuscript. Yuqing Wang contributed to the final version of the manuscript. You Yu provided critical feedback with technical details and helped shape the research. Bo Xiong and Xiaolin Li prepared figures 1-10. All authors reviewed the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Bo Xiong.

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Xiong, B., Wang, Y., Li, X. et al. Constructing a global ionospheric TEC map with a high spatial and temporal resolution by spherical harmonic functions. Astrophys Space Sci 367, 85 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-022-04120-y

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