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The aim of the present study is to investigate the response of ionospheric total electron content (TEC), Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS) scintillations during 17 March 2015 St. Patrick's Day geomagnetic storm over Visakhapatnam, which is popularly known as Waltair (WALT) in the literature. GPS TEC observations obtained from five IGS stations (SGOC, IISC, HYDE, LCK4 and LHAZ) and WALT during the storm have been compared. The TEC derived from GPS, GLONASS constellations and CODE global ionosphere TEC map (GIM) over WALT has also been compared. Positive storm effect during the main phase of the storm and negative storm effect during the recovery phase of the storm were observed over the said stations. The variation of northern equatorial ionisation anomaly TEC (CODE GIM TEC maps) in response to the St. Patrick's Day storm over four Indian longitudes (75 • E, 80 • E, 85 • E and 90 • E) has also been presented. Strong amplitude and phase scintillations were observed in the L-band signals of GPS and GLONASS constellations over WALT. Twelve satellite (Pseudo Random Noise) PRNs of GPS L1 and nine PRNs of each GLONASS L1 and L2-band signals were affected by strong amplitude and phase scintillation. The peak amplitude scintillation index (S4) obtained from the effected PRNs of GPS L1 signal and GLONASS L1-band signals over WALT range from 0.36 to 0.74 and 0.36 to 0.76, respectively. Strong fluctuations in rate of TEC index are noted over the said stations. This enhanced scintillation activity is mainly due to the main phase of the storm falls in the evening sector over the Indian region.

This research reports on recently recorded 250 MHz amplitude scintillations at Waltair (17.7°N, 83.3°E), a low-latitude station in India, using the signals radiated from a geostationary satellite (FLEETSAT, 73°E) during a six-year period (2008 -2013), which covers extremely low and higher solar activity years (2008 and 2013). The morphological features in terms of local time, month, and season during different geophysical conditions are presented. The scintillation patches (segregated based on their occurrence durations) have shown an increasing trend with the increasing sunspot activity. The scintillation patches with 30-min duration show increasing trends with increasing sunspot activity, and their occurrence frequencies also show increasing trends with increasing sunspot activity. The scintillation activity during disturbed epochs (Kp index lies between 3 + and 9) is found to be less compared to its quiet day counterparts. The plausible mechanisms for these observational results are discussed. In addition, power spectral characteristics, including Fresnel frequency, upper role of frequency and spectral slope of scintillations are calculated and the salient results are presented.

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