Tomographic imaging of East African equatorial ionosphere and study of equatorial plasma bubbles

In spite of the fact that the African ionospheric equatorial region has the largest ground footprint along the geomagnetic equator, it has not been well studied due to the absence of adequate ground-based instruments. This thesis presents research on both tomographic imaging of the African equatorial ionosphere and the study of the ionospheric irregularities/equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) under varying geomagnetic conditions. The Multi-Instrument Data Analysis System (MI-DAS), an inversion algorithm, was investigated for its validity and ability as a tool to reconstruct multi-scaled ionospheric structures for different geomagnetic conditions.