Ionospheric scintillation and associated total electron content fluctuations at Tokyo

The phenomenon of TEC fluctuations (Faraday polarization fluctuations) associated with strong amplitude scintillations is investigated for a station outside the equatorial anomaly belt. It is shown that the two phenomena are well correlated in the nocturnal variation as well as in the seasonal variation of their occurrence. The scintillation index is found to vary linearly with TEC fluctuation amplitude. An attempt is made to interpret the Faraday polarization fluctuations in terms of the mechanism proposed by Lee et al. (1982).