Tropical cyclone effects on the equatorial ionosphere: First result from the Indian sector

Abstract

Ionospheric response to the effects of tropical cyclone (TC) “Mahasen” in 2013 and Hudhud in 2014 is studied on the equatorial ionosphere over the Indian sector for the first time using Global Positioning System-derived total electron content (TEC) data. We observed an anomalous decrease of 3.8 TEC unit (1 TECU = 1016 el m−2) in vertical TEC (VTEC) value from the monthly mean for TC Mahasen and 2.1 TECU for TC Hudhud on the day of the landfall. We have also observed similar VTEC depletion of 1.5, 1.9, and 2.1 TECU for three different receivers on the landfall day for TC Vongfong over Japan. This anomalous decrease is observed over a wide zone around the trajectory of the cyclone during the active cyclonic storm stage. This observed anomaly might be the result of combined effect of TC-inspired gravity waves, ejection of neutral particles from the terminator of a TC, and lightning electric fields which redistribute the chemical constituents of the ionosphere by increasing the number of neutral particles at different ionospheric heights, thus decreasing the TEC over the satellite-receiver path.