Applications of the CMONOC based GNSS data in monitoring and investigation of ionospheric space weather

Crustal Movement Observation Network of China (CMONOC) is a comprehensive observational network in Earth sciences on the basis of global navigation satellite system (GNSS) supplemented by a variety of space-based techniques, which aims to perform real-time dynamic monitoring of changes in continental tectonic settings and explore their effect on resources, environments and disasters. Based on the GPS data from similar to 200 reference stations of the COMNOC, this article discusses the application of the COMNOC in the field of ionospheric space weather monitoring and scientific research, including the study on the ionospheric storm morphology, large scale travelling ionospheric disturbances, sudden ionospheric disturbance caused by the solar flare, and ionospheric irregularities at low latitudes. The results show that during the moderate storm event May 29, 2011, the ionosphere recorded a maximum local enhancement of total electron content (TEC) similar to 30 TECU (1TECU=10(16)el/m(2)) over the southern China with maximum enhancement up to 30 TECU at 19 :00 local time, which has good spatial and temporal resolution than the results of JPL-GIM product. Passage of a large scale traveling ionospheric disturbance (LSTID) moving south-westward over the central China was observed during 15 :40-16 :00 UT on May 28, 2011. A solar flare induced sudden increases in TEC (SITECs) was recorded during a solar flare event of X2. 2 class on February 15, 2011 over the entire China. The distribution of Delta TEC of every station shows a statistical linear relationship with the solar zenith. The scintillation index derived from the GPS TEC shows that there are irregularities distributed over southern China with a much larger area used with 200 COMNOC stations than the former 25 reference stations. The above results illustrate that the present network is well distributed with high-qualified data which can be fully used in the investigation of the ionospheric space weather, and serve as the observational basement of the space weather nowcasting and forecasting technique.