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Utah State University

Physics Capstone Projects

Ionosphere

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 3 of 3

Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Large Earthquakes' Effect On The Ionosphere, Aaron Houston May 2022

Large Earthquakes' Effect On The Ionosphere, Aaron Houston

Physics Capstone Projects

The ionosphere is a part of the Earth’s atmosphere that stretches from 80 – 600 kilometers. Gases in this area are ionized which creates a range of free electrons that make up the plasma of the ionosphere. A group of these electrons is known as Total Electron Content (TEC), which is responsible for signal delays between satellites in orbit and their GPS receivers on the surface. Using this delay, the TEC in a specific region can be calculated. This helps in GPS error analysis. During the earthquake in Japan on March 11, 2011, there was allegedly a noticeable jump in …


Seasonal Variations In Global Ionospheric Total Electron Content, Jason Knudsen May 2022

Seasonal Variations In Global Ionospheric Total Electron Content, Jason Knudsen

Physics Capstone Projects

As the Sun ionizes atoms and molecules in the Earth’s ionosphere, the region of atmosphere above approximately 100 km in altitude, the created ionization in this region affects many of the systems that we rely on in daily life. This includes cellular service, GPS navigation, weather forecasting, and credit card data. A good measure for the level of ionization in the ionosphere is total electron content (TEC), which is the number of electrons in a square column above a given geographic location. The TEC over a geographic location influences the propagation of radio waves that traverse that section of the …


Investigating The Weddell Sea Anomaly Using Tie-Gcm, Daesean K. Jones May 2017

Investigating The Weddell Sea Anomaly Using Tie-Gcm, Daesean K. Jones

Physics Capstone Projects

The ionosphere is a region of Earth’s upper atmosphere that is embedded in the thermosphere and parts of the exosphere and mesosphere. The ionosphere is a layer of electrons and electrically charged atoms and molecules that are created by atmospheric absorption of solar radiation. It is subdivided into many layers but for this report, only the F-layer will be of interest. In the F-layer, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) solar radiation ionizes atomic oxygen and in this layer, an intriguing feature occurs. This feature involves an anomalous evening phenomenon over a fixed geographic location, where the electron density during the nighttime is …