Space weather effects on the performance of satellite-based communication systems: Space weather and radio communication

Effects of space weather on the performance of satellite-based communication/ navigation systems have been studied for several decades. A major concern is the predictability of these effects. Apart from the effects produced by changes in the large-scale distribution of plasma in the ionosphere, it is the sub-kilometer structures that appear in the ionosphere that are of great concern as they give rise to scintillations on transionospheric radio signals. The current status of various aspects of scintillations produced by equatorial ionospheric irregularities in the context of space weather is reviewed here.