eSWua: a tool to manage and access GNSS ionospheric data from mid-to-high latitudes

Abstract

The electronic space weather upper atmosphere (eSWua) is a hardware– software system that is based on measurements collected by instruments installed by the Upper Atmosphere Physics Group of the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV, Italy). More recently, it has also included the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) ionospheric scintillation and total electron content (TEC) monitor (GISTM) stations that are managed and operated by the University of Nottingham (UK). By visiting the eSWua website, it is possible to access the database that has been implemented to organize and manage the large amount of information acquired. The section of the database designed for the TEC and scintillation data has been designed to address the needs of the space weather community as well as of scientific users. Through the web tools, it is possible to visualize, plot, extract and download the data from each station. This interactive website is supported by a structured database, and it provides a powerful tool for the scientific and technological community in the field of telecommunications and space weather. At present, the data transmission procedure, the database population algorithm, the linear plot and polar plot visualization tools, the statistics page, and the user management system are fully operational. Web access to the data and tools has been realized to handle the data from the sites at low, mid and high latitudes. In this report, we present the results of the system for the GNSS data in the Arctic, the Antarctica, and the three GISTM stations operated by the University of Nottingham: Nottingham, Trondheim and Dourbes. Case studies of the efficacy of this system for scientific and application purposes are also presented and discussed.