Ionosphere activity forecast tool

Farmers in regions like South America are being impacted on a regular basis by increased ionospheric scintillation from Solar Cycle 25, but how can you know for sure if the cause of the interruption to positioning is scintillation?

Space and government agencies monitor the number of electrons present in the ionosphere over a region throughout the day. The number of electrons, also known as TEC, along with high rates of change in the electron levels help us predict when scintillation can occur, meaning possible impact to GNSS positioning accuracy and availability. TEC fluctuates daily as the sun excites regions of the ionosphere. TEC also has a seasonal variation and is influenced by space weather. This causes the values to differ by location, season or solar cycles which is why we see variations in ionospheric scintillation impacts depending on location and time of year.

The below map displays TEC values from the past seven days and forecasts TEC values for the next 72 hours, to help identify regions that may be likely to see scintillation impacting operations.

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The TEC data was obtained through the online archives of the Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS), NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA. https://cddis.nasa.gov/archive/gnss/products/ionex/