Determining the L-band amplitude scintillation index from Swarm faceplate plasma measurements

The 16 Hz plasma density measurements provided by the high-resolution faceplate onboard Swarm satellites can be utilized to reconstruct the one-dimensional spectral slope (p) of the power spectrum of the plasma density irregularity. The 16 Hz sampling rate at Swarm orbital features (speed of ~7.5 km/s on quasi-polar orbits) allows modelling spatial scales of about 500 m along the flight trajectory, which are slightly above the first Fresnel zone, the upper limit of the scale sizes of the irregularities causing scintillation on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals. 

The p-value is a key parameter in estimating the scintillation strength and thus a Swarm ionospheric scintillation (SWIS) proxy is investigated. Such approach, once consolidated, will benefit the scientific community in studying, monitoring and modelling the small-scale irregularities; specially in contexts where ground based GNSS scintillation monitoring is not available, for example over the oceans.

In this work, p-value from Swarm, combined with the reconstruction of the irregularity layer , are ingested to compute the amplitude scintillation index (S4) using Rino’s theory of weak scattering. In this work, the model formulation and sample results of S4 estimation from Swarm are demonstrated. Results of validating SWIS S4 against S4 from ground based GNSS scintillation for selected key ionospheric sectors are also shown. The results demonstrate that the model can capture the amplitude scintillation index inflation both at low and high latitudes, demonstrating the capability of detecting the equatorial and the (rare) polar amplitude scintillation from Swarm measurements.