Monitoring the ionospheric total electron content variations over the Korean Peninsula using a GPS network during geomagnetic storms

We have established a regional ionospheric model (RIM) for investigating changes in the total electron content (TEC) over South Korea using 38 Korean GPS reference stations. The inverse distance weighted (IDW) interpolation method was applied to create a two-dimensional ionospheric map of vertical TEC units (TECU) based on a grid. To examine the diurnal patterns of ionospheric TEC over South Korea, we first processed the GPS data from a geomagnetically quiet period of 10 days. In a second step, we compared the estimated GPS-TEC variations with the changes in geomagnetic activity indices (the Kp and Dst indices) and the auroral electrojet index (AE) as a function of universal time (UT) on 4 and 20 November, 2003. The GPS-TEC responses for those storm events were proportional to the geomagnetic activity at this mid-latitude location. The sudden increases in ionospheric TEC (SITEC) caused by the geomagnetic storms were detected. The variations in GPS-TEC may help reveal the processes of ionospheric disturbances caused by geomagnetic storms.