Amplitude and phase scintillation at high latitudes over northern Europe

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Abstract
Amplitude and phase scintillation measurements have been made at a high‐latitude site over northern Europe during a 2‐year period. Transmissions from the polar‐orbiting multisatellite Navy Navigation Satellite System have been used to achieve both latitudinal and temporal coverage of the observations, with more than 12,000 satellite passes being monitored to yield in excess of 400,000 values of each of the S4 and σф indices for amplitude and phase scintillation respectively. Results are presented of scintillation occurrence for season, time of day and geomagnetic activity. A premidnight maximum and more scintillation activity in summer and autumn than in winter and early spring are apparent. The results demonstrate the importance of propagation geometry to high‐latitude scintillation measurements, and estimates of the geometrical factors in both S4 and σϕ, computed for a model using different irregularity anisotropies, are discussed.