Variations of ionospheric scintillations due to solar activity

This preliminary work focuses on the effect of solar activity on the ionospheric phase and amplitude scintillations. Data from a GISTM receiver at Parit Raja, Johor, Malaysia (1°52´ N, 103°06´E) during February 2009 (daily SSN: 0-8) and February 2014 (daily SSN: 66-154) were analyzed. It is found that there is only small dependency of phase scintillations on the solar activity. Weak phase scintillations occurred in February 2014 (high solar activity) for about 0.06% of the time, whereby nothing significant was observed in 2009 (low solar activity). Meanwhile, for the amplitude scintillations, no dependency was observed. Weak amplitude scintillations occurred in February 2009 for about 0.923% of the time, whereby it decreased to 0.336% in 2014.