Seasonal Variation of F2 Peak of Ionosphere

Abstract

The environment in the top layer of the Earth's atmosphere which we call as ionosphere changes from hour to hour and from day to day due to its interaction with Sun. As a part of this research, we are studying the F2 peak of the ionosphere using ionosonde data. We are using the data for King Salmon (latitude 58.4 degree, longitude 203.6 degree) station. During winter time of solar minima (year 2008) F2 peak varies around ~1.6 MHz to ~2 MHz and during summer time it varies between ~3.1 MHz to ~4 MHz The height of the F2 peak varies between ~180 km to ~370 km. The results of this research project will be important in terms of space plasma studies and space weather predictions, which play a significant role in radio and satellite communication as well as GPS navigation.