## 4 Summary and Conclusions
The supporting method trailing the presence of EPBs through TEC depletion threshold criteria used in this study opens the scope for utilizing non-scintillation geodetic GNSS receiver observations as the abundance of scintillation monitoring receivers, ionosonde, radar, and other observatories are sparse across any region compared to the spread of geodetic GNSS observatories. Nevertheless, the study foresees scopes for a better understanding of the effects of plasma irregularities (scintillations, fading and depletions) on GNSS signals due to the occurrence of EPBs and developing their mitigation techniques through improved modeling and forecasting services. Our attempts at such objectives coincide with the global efforts for mitigating scintillation effects in satellite-based critical and dynamic services and applications. Conceptualization, S.K.P. and P.J. ; methodology, S.K.P., P.J. and R.K.V. ; software M.I.H.S., G.K.S. and R.K.V. ; validation, P.J., G.K.S., M.I.H.S. and S.K.P. ; formal analysis, P.J., G.K.S., S.K.P. and R.K.V. ; investigation, P.J., S.K.P. and R.K.V. ; resources, G.K.S. and S.K.P. ; data curation, S.K.P. ; writing--original draft preparation, R.K.V. and S.K.P. ; writing--review and editing, R.K.V., P.J., G.K.S., M.I.H.S. and S.K.P. ; visualization, P.J., G.K.S., M.I.H.S. and S.K.P. ; supervision, S.K.P. ; project administration, S.K.P. ; funding acquisition, P.J., M.I.H.S. and S.K.P. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript. SKP and RKV appreciate the Core Research Grant (CRG) project sponsored by the Science Engineering Research Board (SERB) (A statutory body of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India) New Delhi, India, vide File No: CRG/2019/003394. TJ acknowledges the financial support for this research from Fundamental Fund (FF67) of the Thailand Science Research and Innovation Fund (Annual Budget B.E. 2567). MIHS extend the appreciation to the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSPD2023R999), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The Disturbance storm index (Dst), geomagnetic Kp index, ap index, and interplanetary magnetic field component (IMF-Bz) data are downloaded from the NASA-OMNI website ([[https://omniweb.gsfc.nasa.gov](https://omniweb.gsfc.nasa.gov)]([https://omniweb.gsfc.nasa.gov](https://omniweb.gsfc.nasa.gov))) (accessed on 5 August 2023). The multi-constellation and multi-frequency GNSS sTEC data are obtained from the Septentrio PolaRcSS GNSS receiver established at the study location. The TEC validation is performed with the additional TEC retrieving software TayAbsTEC ([[http://www.gnss-lab.org/tay-abs-tec.html](http://www.gnss-lab.org/tay-abs-tec.html)]([http://www.gnss-lab.org/tay-abs-tec.html](http://www.gnss-lab.org/tay-abs-tec.html)) (accessed on 3 October 2023)) and GPS-TEC analysis ([[https://seemala.blogspot.com/2020/12/gps-tec-program-version-3-for-rinex-3.html](https://seemala.blogspot.com/2020/12/gps-tec-program-version-3-for-rinex-3.html)]([https://seemala.blogspot.com/2020/12/gps-tec-program-version-3-for-rinex-3.html](https://seemala.blogspot.com/2020/12/gps-tec-program-version-3-for-rinex-3.html)) (accessed on 3 October 2023)), obtained from their respective website. The ROTI data for the IGS stations over Indian region is obtained from the SIMuRG: System for Ionosphere Monitoring and Research from GNSS website ([[https://simurg.space/](https://simurg.space/)]([https://simurg.space/](https://simurg.space/)) (accessed on 3 October 2023)). SKP and RKV acknowledge Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation for providing laboratory and infrastructure for establishment of GISTM receiver and conducting the present research. \"MIHS extends the appreciation to the Researchers Supporting Project number (RSPD2023R999), King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia\" for providing funds to conduct the present research at the present university. The authors declare no conflict of interest.