Articles | Volume 32, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-32-293-2014
https://doi.org/10.5194/angeo-32-293-2014
Regular paper
 | 
28 Mar 2014
Regular paper |  | 28 Mar 2014

Phase and coherence analysis of VHF scintillation over Christmas Island

E. B. Shume, A. J. Mannucci, and R. Caton

Abstract. This short paper presents phase and coherence data from the cross-wavelet transform applied on longitudinally separated very high frequency (VHF) equatorial ionospheric scintillation observations over Christmas Island. The phase and coherence analyses were employed on a pair of scintillation observations, namely, the east-looking and west-looking VHF scintillation monitors at Christmas Island. Our analysis includes 3 years of peak season scintillation data from 2008, 2009 (low solar activity), and 2011 (moderate solar activity). In statistically significant and high spectral coherence regions of the cross-wavelet transform, scintillation observations from the east-looking monitor lead those from the west-looking monitor by about 20 to 60 (40 ± 20) min (most frequent lead times). Using several years (seasons and solar cycle) of lead (or lag) and coherence information of the cross-wavelet transform, we envisage construction of a probability model for forecasting scintillation in the nighttime equatorial ionosphere.