A study of L-band scintillations at equatorial latitudes

A network of global positioning system based on single (L1) frequency receivers has been installed in Brazil for the purpose of monitoring ionospheric L-band scintillation. In this paper, we study the characteristics of L-band amplitude scintillations at two different location in Brazil, namely Sao Luis, located at magnetic equator, and Sao Jose dos Campos located under the equatorial anomaly peak. The detailed results are presented for data collected between October 2001 and January 2002. We generally found that the percentage occurrence of the scintillation activity increases from the magnetic equator to the equatorial anomaly peaks.