Superimposed disturbance in the ionosphere triggered by spacecraft launches in China

Abstract

Using GPS dual-frequency observations collected by continuously operating GPS tracking stations in China, superimposed disturbances caused by the integrated action of spacecraft's physical effect and chemical effect on ionosphere during the launches of the spacecrafts Tiangong-1 and Shenzhou-8 in China were firstly determined. The results show that the superimposed disturbance was composed of remarkable ionospheric waves and significant ionospheric depletion emerged after both launches. Meanwhile, we found for the first time that the ionospheric waves were made up of two periods of wave by wavelet analysis. The first period of ∼ 4 min shows one event in the near stations and two sub-events in the few far stations. The second period of ∼ 9 min shows only one event in all the observed stations. Finally, the time characteristics for ionospheric waves and depletions were examined.