Statistical study of medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances observed with the GPS networks in Southern California

Abstract Using global positioning system (GPS) data taken from 350 dual-frequency GPS receivers in Southern California in 2002, we investigated two-dimensional maps of total electron content (TEC) perturbations with a time resolution of 30 s and a spatial resolution of 0.15°×0.15° in longitude and latitude to reveal statistical characteristics of medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs). We found that MSTIDs can be categorized into three types. One type is daytime MSTIDs, which frequently occur in winter and equinoxes. Since most of the daytime MSTIDs propagated southeastward, we speculate that the daytime MSTIDs could be caused by atmospheric gravity waves in the thermosphere. A second type is nighttime MSTIDs, which frequently occur in summer. Nighttime MSTIDs propagate southwestward. This propagation direction is consistent with the idea that polarization electric fields could play an important role in generating nighttime MSTIDs. The third is dusk MSTIDs, which frequently occur in summer and propagate northwestward. Dusk MSTIDs could be caused by gravity waves originating from the sunset terminator because they have wavefronts almost parallel to the sunset terminator.