The correlation between total electron content variations and solar activity

Due to the irregularities and dispersive medium of ionosphere, the total electron content (TEC) varies caused by a several factors such as local time (LT), latitude, longitude, season, geomagnetic conditions, solar cycle and activity, and so on. This investigation focused on the correlation between TEC variation and solar activity at an equatorial and polar station. This paper investigated the TEC variation at recent solar cycle 24. 2008 indicates solar minimum period while 2013 indicates solar maximum period. This paper covered analysis on hourly mean TEC value at the equatorial station, Libreville, Gabon (0.354˚N, 9.672˚E) and the polar station, Ny-Alesund, Norway (78.929˚N, 11.865˚E). By using the GPS-TEC analysis application software, the TEC value was extracted from Receiver Independent Exchange (RINEX) observation files. The TEC values increases during solar maximum because of higher solar activities. Additionally, geographic latitude also affects TEC variation, as solar radiation hits directly to the Earth’s atmosphere at Libreville station thus more ionization processes occurs. At Ny-Alesund station, winter anomaly causes the TEC values in winter goes high, approximately ~5 TECU in 2008 and ~8 TECU in 2013.