Seasonal characteristics of COSMIC measurements over Indian sub-continent during different phases of solar activity

•Strong Post-sunset increase in NmF2 over equatorial-low latitude in 2010–2011 in winter and over equator in equinoxes in all years. A post-midnight increase over both regions during high solar activity.•Winter anomaly in NmF2 over equator is absent and weak during low and high solar activity whereas over low-latitude, is stronger in moderate but absent in minimum and maximum solar activity period respectively.•The peak values in hmF2 in noontime are even lower than midnight in winter over low-latitude.•Model is strongly correlated for NmF2 by CCIR than URSI and over-/under-estimates over equatorial/low-latitude region in different seasons respectively.•Model is moderately correlated for hmF2 with overestimation up to ∼96km.