# Polar Cap Patches Scaling Properties: Insights from Swarm Data
## 3 Results
Indeed, as mentioned in Section 1, irregularities like these are often linked to a loss of signal from such systems. So, we directly identified GPS LoL events by detecting interruptions in the sTEC time series of each GPS satellite in the field of view of Swarm A. We considered as LoL events interruptions in the sTEC time series lasting between 2 and 1200 s. The duration of each LoL event was calculated by determining the difference  
Figure 8: Southern hemisphere: joint probability distributions between RODI and \(\gamma(1)\) (**left side**), \(\gamma(2)\) (**center**), and intermittency (**right side**) separately for data with (solid contours) and without (dashed contours) PCPs, for two levels of geomagnetic activity, i.e., quiet (**top**) and disturbed (**bottom**). between the timestamps corresponding to the beginning and the end of the identified sTEC interruption. For more details on the methodology, refer to [PERSON] et al. (2018). Then, we selected LoLs occurred simultaneously to PCPs and those occurred in absence of PCPs. Figure 10 displays the corresponding results. In detail, the upper plots represent LoL spatial distributions for the Northern hemisphere: on the left is the number of LoLs occurred in absence of PCPs (i.e., PCP flag equal to 0); on the right is the number of LoLs occurred in presence of PCPs (i.e., PCP flag equal to 1 or 4). The two bottom plots represent the histograms indicating how the number of LoLs occurring in presence (red) and in absence (erav) of PCPs varies with OD-latitude (left) and MLT (right). As indicated by the percentage shown in the bottom right corner of each map in the upper part of Figure 10, more than half of the events coincide with PCPs. The events coinciding with PCPs exhibit a spatial distribution characterized by a peak in the range of QD-latitudes \(80^{\circ}\div 85^{\circ}\), mainly at MLTs between around 05:00 and 10:00 MLT. In contrast, the LoLs not coinciding with PCPs have a more uniform distribution. The same analysis was conducted for the Southern hemisphere, as shown in Figure 11. Here, the percentage of LoL events coinciding with PCPs is around one-third of the total number of events, which is therefore lower than in the Northern hemisphere. The plot on the top right of Figure 11, showing the spatial distribution of LoLs coinciding with PCPs (in the red-scale map), exhibits only one main peak in the dayside sector, between approximately 11:00 and 17:00 MLT. Differently from the Northern hemisphere, distributions in gray shown in the bottom part of Figure 11, i.e., of LoLs occurring in absence of PCPs does not display the almost uniform character displayed in Figure 10.  
Figure 9: Southern hemisphere: space distribution of the values of \(\gamma(1)\) (**left side**), \(\gamma(2)\) (**center**), and intermittency (**right side**) corresponding to the presence of PCPs as a function of QD-latitude (\(\lambda_{\text{QD}}\)) and magnetic local time (MLT), for two levels of geomagnetic activity, i.e., quiet **(top)** and disturbed (**bottom**). Circles are drawn at QD-latitudes of \(70^{\circ}\), \(75^{\circ}\), \(80^{\circ}\), and \(85^{\circ}\). Finally, we compared the joint distribution between RODI and \(\gamma(2)\) obtained considering all LoL events and all PCPs. Figure 12 shows the results for both hemispheres and the two levels of geomagnetic activity. The upper plots display the distributions during quiet periods, while the bottom plots show the distributions during disturbed conditions. Contours of the joint distribution associated with LoLs (indicated by dashed contours) are shifted towards higher values of RODI compared to those associated with PCPs (indicated by solid contours). The displacement of the two distributions with respect to \(\gamma(2)\) is not as pronounced as the displacement with respect to RODI, especially during disturbed periods, likely due to the similar dynamical properties characterizing the two phenomena. The area where the two distributions overlap provides a rough indication of LoLs occurring in presence of PCPs.