We employ multi-instrumental data to investigate the behavior of
equatorial and low latitude ionosphere during the geomagnetic storm of
November 3-6, 2021. We used TEC data obtained from GPS receiver stations
located in the equatorial and low-latitudes of the Asian, African, and
American sectors. It is found that the storm-time ionization level
varies significantly in the trough and crest of EIA region over the
three longitudes. ROTI is used to estimate the occurrence of ionospheric
plasma irregularities during the storm. Usually, the main phase of the
geomagnetic storm triggers the equatorial plasma irregularities and the
recovery phase suppresses the occurrence of them. Here, we observed
inhibition of the plasma irregularities over the three sectors during
the main phase of the storm. We suspect this may be due to the injection
of the PEFs which occur between local midnight and around noon during
the main phase. The PEFs restrict the diffusion of plasma and therefore,
suppress the occurrence of plasma irregularities during the main phase.
During the recovery phase, moderate ionospheric irregularities occurred
at local midnight in the American sector. In the African sector, the
occurrence of weak irregularities can be seen before midnight on
November 5 and 6. However, the Asian sector does not exhibit noticeable
ionospheric irregularities during the storm. We conclude that the
longitudinal variation in the development of ionospheric irregularities
can be influenced by factors such as local time occurrence of maximum
ring current, PPEF, disturbance wind dynamo electric field, and
shielding electric field.