Equatorial plasma bubbles observed in large longitudinal range during a magnetiec storm on 5 April 2006

During magnetic storms, energy injection at high latitudes results in highly disturbed electric fields and thermospheric winds to dominate the low latitude and equatorial ionosphere. This makes a significant difference of the stormtime equatorial plasma bubbles from those in quiet time ionosphere. This paper presents plasma bubbles observed with 51 dual-frequency GPS receivers during the main phase of a medium magnetic storm on 5 April 2006. With the rate of the total electron content index (ROTI) maps, the plasma bubbles were found between 90 °E and 160 ° E in longitude, 12 °S and 33 °N in latitude. The plasma bubbles displayed asymmetry in north-south hemisphere. The bubbles in the southern hemisphere appeared ~1 h after sunset and survived ~9 h. Those in the northern hemisphere appeared ~1.5 h after sunset and survived ~4 h.