Equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) disrupt satellite‐based communication and navigation systems, particularly in equatorial regions. Reliable detection and classification of EPBs from all‐sky imager (ASI) images are essential for accurate space weather monitoring and forecasting. This study presents a novel bootstrapping convolutional neural network (CNN) approach to optimize automated EPB detection on ASI images for operational space weather monitoring applications, and overcoming challenges related to image variability and imbalanced data sets. Data used for CNN training were obtained from the optical mesosphere thermosphere imagers ASI installed at the Space Environment Research Laboratory, National Space Research and Development Agency, Abuja during the period from 2015 to 2020. Our method involved training three sub‐models, and aggregating their predictions. The CNN trainings were conducted on three sub‐datasets of 3,000 images each, categorized as “EPB,” “Noisy/Cloudy” or “No EPB.” Three corresponding sub‐models were developed from the CNN trainings. The three sub‐model classifications independently gave prediction accuracies of 98.67%, 98.33%, and 95.83% on a reserved test data set of 600 images. Ensemble models further improved the model prediction accuracies to 99.17% and 99.33% for methods based on the mean of sub‐model probabilities and the mode of sub‐model classifications respectively. Our results indicate that the bootstrapping CNN technique enhanced the EPB detection accuracy, providing a powerful tool for real‐time space weather monitoring applications, and implications for improving operational reliability of satellite‐based navigation and communication in the equatorial region.

The influence of the 15^th January 2010 annular solar eclipse on traveling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) and equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs) is studied using data from six global navigation and satellite system (GNSS) receivers spread across the path of annularity over the low latitude region of East Africa. The GNSS receivers are stationed at Nairobi (RCMN), Malindi (MAL2), and Eldoret (MOIU) in Kenya; Mbarara (MBAR) in Uganda; Kigali (NURK) in Rwanda; and Mtwara (MTWA) in Tanzania. The study period ranges from 12^th to 18^th January 2010, three days before and after the 15^th January 2010 annular solar eclipse. The year 2010 marked the beginning phase of solar cycle 24, evidently observed in low total electron content (TEC) values and the disturbed storm time index (Dst). The eclipse started at 7:06 LT and ended at 10:14 LT, with MOIU and RCMN experiencing eclipse magnitudes of 0.946 and 0.93, respectively. The maximum obscuration occurred between 8:21 LT and 8:34 LT across most of the stations. A detrending on vertical TEC (VTEC) derived from GNSS receivers across or close to the path of totality revealed a reduction of 2-3 TECU during the maximum phase of the eclipse. The level of reduction was highly close to the totality path and decreased smoothly away from the totality path. Using a background polynomial fitting technique on diurnal TEC, we analyzed TIDs along NURK-MBAR-MOIU and MOIU-RCMN-MAL2 GPS arrays. The results revealed a wavelike perturbation with a virtual horizontal velocity of 830m/s and 1 TECU amplitude propagating eastward along the MOIU-RCMN-MAL2 GPS array. The study reports a moderate scintillation activity of 0.5ROTI0.9 values, demonstrating the presence of few EPBs over the region. The results show a latitudinal variation in GPS-TEC scintillation activities and suggest a possible influence of the eclipse on the observed increase in average scintillation levels across East Africa.

Challenging Minisatellite Payload (CHAMP) satellite magnetic data are used to investigate the latitudinal variation of the storm-time meso-scale field-aligned currents by defining a new metric called the FAC range. Three major geomagnetic storm events are considered. Alongside SymH, the possible contributions from solar wind dynamic pressure and interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) BZ are also investigated. The results show that the new metric predicts the latitudinal variation of FACs better than previous studies. As expected, the equatorward expansion and poleward retreat are observed during the storm main phase and recovery phase respectively. The equatorward shift is prominent on the northern duskside, at ~58° coinciding with the minimum SymH and dayside at ~59° compared to dawnside and nightside respectively. The latitudinal shift of FAC range is better correlated to IMF BZ in northern hemisphere dusk-dawn magnetic local time (MLT) sectors than in southern hemisphere. The FAC range latitudinal shifts responds better to dynamic pressure in the duskside northern hemisphere and dawnside southern hemisphere than in southern hemisphere dusk sector and northern hemisphere dawn sector respectively. FAC range exhibits a good correlation with dynamic pressure in the dayside (nightside) southern (northern) hemispheres depicting possible electrodynamic similarity at day-night MLT sectors in the opposite hemispheres.

In this study, we investigate the impact of the digital revolution on women in physics in Kenya and analyze how the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic affected thei

We report the results of 14 years of monitoring of G188.95+0.89 periodic 6.7 GHz methanol masers using the Hartebeesthoek 26-m radio telescope. G188.95+0.89 (S252, AFGL5180) is a radio-quiet methanol maser site that is often interpreted as precursors of ultra-compact HII regions or massive protostar sites. At least five bright spectral components were identified. The maser feature at 11.36 km s-1 was found to experience an exponential decay during the monitoring period. The millimetre continuum reveals two cores associated with the source.