SAASST News

Thursday, 04 February 2021 11:02

A Glimpse of Strengthening - Solar Cycle 25

The figure on the left shows the critical frequencies of different ionospheric layers plotted against their virtual heights, as observed by the SAASST ionosonde over 24 hours starting from midnight on February 02, 2021, while the figure on the right shows a similar plot generated for data collected during the same period in 2020.

A glaring difference in the ionosphere's condition on the two different days is the more persistent presence of the sporadic E layer in 2021, compared to the same time in 2020. Researchers at the Space Weather and Ionosphere (SW&I) Laboratory at SAASST believe this is to be attributed to solar activity, as the Sun has been more active now than in early 2020, as evident from the number of sunspots during the two periods. A strong presence of the F2-layer in 2021 also gives credence to the theory since F2-layer critical frequencies and heights during a 24-hour period improve with the strength of the solar cycle.