Study on Zonal Drifts of Low-Latitude F Region Irregularities over Southern China Using $C/N_{0}$ Measurements from BDS GEO Satellite

In this paper we estimated the zonal drift velocity of low-latitude
$\mathrm{F}$
region irregularities over Southern China by using the 1-Hz carrier-to-noise density ratio
$(C/N_{0})$
observations of the geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellite C03 of BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS). The
$C/N_{0}$
data analyzed were collected between April 2014 and April 2015 by two very close stations, i.e., HKCL (22.296°N, 113.908°E) and HKQT (22.291°N, 114.213°E). The two stations are located approximately along the east-west direction with a separation of about 31.38 km. The statistical results indicated that low-latitude F region irregularities over Southern China drifted eastwardly with the drift velocity ranging from 30 to 200 m/s. In most cases (with the occurrence rate of
$\sim$
72 %) the eastward drift velocity of these F region irregularities varied between 70 and 130 m/s. These statistical results were consistent with those of previous studies. This study also verified the feasibility of the method, which estimates the zonal drift velocity of low-latitude F region irregularities by using the 1- Hz
$C/N_{0}$
measurements of BDS GEO satellite's B1I signal collected by two very close stations.