太阳活动低年广州地区地磁扰动与电离层闪烁的统计特征分析

基于肇庆地磁台的地磁监测数据和广州气象卫星地面站建立的华南地区GPS电离层闪烁监测网的监测数据, 统计分析了2008年7月至2010年7月太阳活动低年期间广州地区地磁扰动与电离层闪烁的关系. 用肇庆台地磁水平分量H的变化量换算出肇庆地磁指数K, 以此来代表广州地区地磁扰动情况.分析结果表明, 磁暴/强地磁扰动对广州地区电离层闪烁的发生总体表现为抑制作用, 电离层闪烁主要发生在低K值期间, 而在K ≥ 4时电离层闪烁的发生呈下降趋势. 电离层闪烁发生率随季节和地磁活动的变化规律表现在, 春季的弱闪烁发生率、夜间中等以上闪烁发生率和夏季中等以上闪烁的发生率明显与地磁活动指数K相关, 即随$K$指数的增大而减小; 在秋季和冬季闪烁发生率与K指数变化无明显关系. 同时还综合分析了地磁与太阳活动的变化对电离层活动的影响, 广州地区闪烁主要发生在太阳活动较低的磁静日期间.      

On the occurrence and strength of multi-frequency multi-GNSS Ionospheric Scintillations in Indian sector during declining phase of solar cycle 24

This study presents unique perspectives of occurrence and strength of low latitude ionospheric scintillations on multiple signals of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and its frequency dependence using continuous observation records of 780 nights. A robust comparative analysis is performed using scintillation index, S4 and its variation during pre-midnight and post-midnight duration from a GNSS receiver located at Waltair (17.7°N, 83.3°E), India, covering period from July 2014 to August 2016. The results, generally exhibit the impact of declining phase of solar cycle 24 on occurrence and strength of scintillations, which, however, is evidently different over different frequencies transmitted from different GNSS systems. A deeper quantitative analysis uniquely reveals that apart from the solar cycle and seasonal effects, the number of visible satellites of a selected GNSS markedly affect the occurrence and also the strength. Processing scheme of adopting 6 hourly time windows of pre-midnight and post-midnight brought a novel result that the strength and occurrence of strong scintillations decrease with declining solar activity during pre-midnight hours but remarkably increase for moderate and weak scintillations during post-midnight. The physical processes that dominate the post-midnight equatorial ionosphere are invoked to explain such variations that are special during declining solar activity. Finally, inter-GNSS signal analysis in terms of the effect of strong, moderate and weak scintillations is presented with due consideration of number of satellite passes affected and frequency dependence of mean S4. The quantitative results of this study emphasize for the first time effect of low latitude scintillation on GNSS signals in Indian zone under changing background solar and seasonal conditions.     

Ionospheric scintillations at Guilin detected by GPS ground-based and radio occultation observations

The occurrence of ionospheric scintillations with S4 ? 0.2 was studied using GPS measurements at Guilin, China (25.29°N, 110.33°E; geomagnetic: 15.04°N, 181.98°E), a station located near the northern crest of the equatorial anomaly. The results are presented for data collected from January 2009 to March 2010. The results show that nighttime amplitude scintillations only took place in February and March of the considered years, while daytime amplitude scintillations occurred in August and December of 2009. Nighttime amplitude scintillations, observed in the south of Guilin, always occurred with phase scintillations, TEC (Total Electron Content) depletions, and ROT (Rate Of change of TEC) fluctuations. However, TEC depletions and ROT fluctuations were weak during daytime amplitude scintillations, and daytime amplitude scintillations always took place simultaneously for most of the GPS satellites which appeared over Guilin in different azimuth directions. Ground-based GPS scintillation/TEC observations recorded at Guilin and signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) measurements obtained from GPS-COSMIC radio occultation indicate that nighttime and daytime scintillations are very likely caused by ionospheric F region irregularities and sporadic E, respectively. Moreover, strong daytime amplitude scintillations may be associated with the plasma density enhancements in ionospheric E region caused by the Perseid and Geminid meteor shower activities.     

The ionosphere,radio navigation,and global navigation satellite systems

This article is a review of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) for space scientists who are interested in how GNSS signals and observables can be used to understand ionospheric dynamics and, conversely, how ionospheric dynamics affect the operational capabilities of GNSS receivers. The most common form of GNSS is the Global Positioning System (GPS); we will first review its operating principles and then present a discussion of errors, of which ionospheric propagation is the most significant. Methods and systems for mitigating errors will be introduced, along with a discussion of modernization plans for GPS and for entirely new systems such as Galileo. In the second half of this article the effects of the ionosphere on GPS signals will be examined in more detail, particularly ionospheric propagation, leading to a discussion of the relation of TEC to ranging errors. Next, the subject of scintillations will also be introduced and connected to the presence and scale sizes of irregularities. Scintillations will be examined as spatial and temporal structures. The method of measuring scintillation pattern drift and ionospheric velocity will be discussed. We conclude by examining ionospheric effects on GPS at midlatitudes.     

Simulation and analysis of chemical release in the ionosphere

Ionospheric inhomogeneous plasma produced by single point chemical release has simple space-time structure, and cannot impact radio wave frequencies higher than Very High Frequency (VHF) band. In order to produce more complicated ionospheric plasma perturbation structure and trigger instabilities phenomena, multiple-point chemical release scheme is presented in this paper. The effects of chemical release on low latitude ionospheric plasma are estimated by linear instability growth rate theory that high growth rate represents high irregularities, ionospheric scintillation occurrence probability and high scintillation intension in scintillation duration. The amplitude scintillations and the phase scintillations of 150?MHz, 400?MHz, and 1000?MHz are calculated based on the theory of multiple phase screen (MPS), when they propagate through the disturbed area.     

华南地区电离层闪烁的时空分布特征研究

利用位于赤道异常区的广州(23.17°N, 113.34°E)和茂名(21.45°N, 111.31°E)两台站2011年7月至2012年6月观测到的GPS电离层闪烁数据, 分析比较了这两地电离层闪烁出现的逐月变化及地方时变化和空间分布特征. 结果表明, 中等强度闪烁(S₄ > 0.4)和强闪烁(S₄ > 0.6)的出现均呈现明显季节分布规律, 两站的闪烁活动均表现出春秋强, 冬夏弱的特点, 在时间上主要发生在20:00LT-24:00LT; 从空间分布来看, 两站的闪烁活动在2011年秋季, 闪烁出现的区域比较分散, 而在2012年春季, 主要在两站上空区域出现的闪烁最为频繁.      

Near real-time PPP-based monitoring of the ionosphere using dual-frequency GPS/BDS/Galileo data

Ionosphere delay is very important to GNSS observations, since it is one of the main error sources which have to be mitigated even eliminated in order to determine reliable and precise positions. The ionosphere is a dispersive medium to radio signal, so the value of the group delay or phase advance of GNSS radio signal depends on the signal frequency. Ground-based GNSS stations have been used for ionosphere monitoring and modeling for a long time. In this paper we will introduce a novel approach suitable for single-receiver operation based on the precise point positioning (PPP) technique. One of the main characteristic is that only carrier-phase observations are used to avoid particular effects of pseudorange observations. The technique consists of introducing ionosphere ambiguity parameters obtained from PPP filter into the geometry-free combination of observations to estimate ionospheric delays. Observational data from stations that are capable of tracking the GPS/BDS/GALILEO from the International GNSS Service (IGS) Multi-GNSS Experiments (MGEX) network are processed. For the purpose of performance validation, ionospheric delays series derived from the novel approach are compared with the global ionospheric map (GIM) from Ionospheric Associate Analysis Centers (IAACs). The results are encouraging and offer potential solutions to the near real-time ionosphere monitoring.     

同步卫星讯号显示的电离层闪烁特性

本文利用1983年5—8月,1984年5—12月在武昌(114.4°E,30.6°N)对日本ETS-Ⅱ卫星(130.0°E)发出的136.1124MHz讯号的观测资料进行了统计分析。结果表明:(1)武昌电离层闪烁不但有日变化,而且有季变化。每年5—7月为闪烁最大活动期,在这些月份的夜间常出现法拉弟旋转角类波扰动伴随有强闪烁现象。武昌电离层闪烁是属于中纬闪烁型;(2)闪烁指数与法拉弟旋转角起伏密切相关,它们出现率之间的相关系数为0.8以上;夜间闪烁与扩展F层,白天闪烁与突发E层出现率之间的相关系数分别为0.6和0.55。      

海口站电离层闪烁强度功率谱分析与建模应用

基于中国海口站(20.00°N, 110.33°E)获取的2013全年UHF 频段电离层闪烁信号强度数据, 利用Welch算法, 分析给出了四类典型电离层闪 烁强度功率谱. 利用功率谱时序图分析方法, 发现电离层不均匀体存在东西向水 平周期性变化结构. 提取全年功率谱指数p, 通过统计分析发现谱指数p存在规律变化, 据此建立一个谱指数经验模型, 该谱指数模型已用于中国低纬 区域电离层闪烁发生预报概率模型(CMSOP), 进而对海口站UHF频段电离层闪烁发生 概率观测数据和预报结果进行了对比分析.      

中国南京地区L波段电离层闪烁初步统计分析

利用南京地区2008年11月至2009年10月电离层闪烁监测数据, 统计分析了该地区一年间L波段电离层幅度闪烁发生率的逐日变化、逐月变化、地方时变化和空间分布等特征. 统计结果表明, 在此期间, 南京地区L波段电离层幅度闪烁活动比较平静, 主要以0.14<0.2的闪烁为主, S₄>0.2的闪烁很少发生.不同强度幅度闪烁表现出一致的时间变化和空间分布特征, 2008年11月为最小,2009年6月、8至10月闪烁发生率都有明显的增强, 在10月达到最大, 在8月和10月的S₄>0.2的闪烁主要出现于正午到日落前这段时间; 对于闪烁的空间分布, 单站一年数据统计显示, 测站北向闪烁的发生频率高于南向, 但该统计结果需要更多的数据样本进行进一步的验证.      

A real-time ionospheric model based on GNSS Precise Point Positioning

This paper proposes a method of real-time monitoring and modeling the ionospheric Total Electron Content (TEC) by Precise Point Positioning (PPP). Firstly, the ionospheric TEC and receiver’s Differential Code Biases (DCB) are estimated with the undifferenced raw observation in real-time, then the ionospheric TEC model is established based on the Single Layer Model (SLM) assumption and the recovered ionospheric TEC. In this study, phase observations with high precision are directly used instead of phase smoothed code observations. In addition, the DCB estimation is separated from the establishment of the ionospheric model which will limit the impacts of the SLM assumption impacts. The ionospheric model is established at every epoch for real time application. The method is validated with three different GNSS networks on a local, regional, and global basis. The results show that the method is feasible and effective, the real-time ionosphere and DCB results are very consistent with the IGS final products, with a bias of 1–2 TECU and 0.4 ns respectively.     

GPS scintillation and TEC gradients at equatorial latitudes in April 2006

We use observations of ionospheric scintillation at equatorial latitudes from two GPS receivers specially modified for recording, at a sampling rate of 50 Hz, the phase and the amplitude of the L1 signal and the Total Electron Content (TEC) from L1 and L2. The receivers, called GISTM (GPS Ionospheric Scintillation and TEC Monitor), are located in Vietnam (Hue, 16.4°N, 107.6°E; Hoc Mon, 10.9°N, 106.6°E). These experimental observations are analysed together with the tomographic reconstruction of the ionosphere produced by the Multi-Instrument Data Analysis System (MIDAS) for investigating the moderate geomagnetic storm which occurred on early April 2006, under low solar activity. The synergic adoption of the ionospheric imaging and of the GISTM measurements supports the identification of the scale-sizes of the ionospheric irregularities causing scintillations and helps the interpretation of the physical mechanisms generating or inhibiting the appearance of the equatorial F layer irregularities. In particular, our study attributes to the turning of the IMF (Interplanetary Magnetic Field) between northward and southward direction an important role in the inhibition of the generation of spread F irregularities resulting in a lack of scintillation enhancement in the post-sunset hours.     

电离层对星载SAR影响的多相位屏仿真方法

利用多相位屏技术对电离层色散、相位闪烁、幅度闪烁等影响的P波段星载SAR(Synthetic Aperture Radar)回波进行了仿真.将电离层建模为只改变信号相位的多个薄屏,信号在屏之间的衍射效应实现电离层的幅度闪烁和相位闪烁.衍射结果由斜入射条件下球面波的抛物方程在自由空间的解析解得到.穿过多相位屏的信号复振幅中包含了电离层色散、相位闪烁、幅度闪烁等影响.回波信号通过发射信号的频谱与受电离层影响的复振幅相乘得到.仿真表明,该方法可以真实反映电离层色散、相位闪烁、幅度闪烁等效应,为研究电离层影响下的星载SAR成像提供真实可靠的数据.     

Low-latitude ionospheric scintillations and total electron content obtained with the CITRIS instrument on STPSat1 using radio transmissions from DORIS ground beacons

The primary objective of the Scintillation and Tomography Receiver in Space (CITRIS) is to detect ionospheric irregularities from space at low latitude. For this purpose, the satellite receiver uses the UHF and S-Band transmissions of the ground network of Doppler Orbitography and Radiopositioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) beacons. CITRIS, developed at the Naval Research Laboratory, differs from the normal DORIS receiver by being able to capture and store the complex amplitude of the 401.25 and 2036.25 MHz transmissions at 200 Hz sample rate. Ground processing of the CITRIS data yields total electron content (TEC) and both phase and amplitude scintillations. With CITRIS flying on the US Space Test Program (STP) satellite STPSat1, 2 years of data were collected and processed to determine the fluctuations in ionospheric TEC and radio scintillations associated with equatorial irregularities. CITRIS flights over DORIS transmitters yield direct measurements of the horizontal plasma density fluctuations associated with equatorial plasma bubbles. Future flights of CITRIS can provide valuable complements to other satellite instruments such as GPS occultation receivers used to estimate vertical electron density profiles in the ionosphere.     

Stochastic modelling considering ionospheric scintillation effects on GNSS relative and point positioning

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), in particular the Global Positioning System (GPS), have been widely used for high accuracy geodetic positioning. The Least Squares functional models related to the GNSS observables have been more extensively studied than the corresponding stochastic models, given that the development of the latter is significantly more complex. As a result, a simplified stochastic model is often used in GNSS positioning, which assumes that all the GNSS observables are statistically independent and of the same quality, i.e. a similar variance is assigned indiscriminately to all of the measurements. However, the definition of the stochastic model may be approached from a more detailed perspective, considering specific effects affecting each observable individually, as for example the effects of ionospheric scintillation. These effects relate to phase and amplitude fluctuations in the satellites signals that occur due to diffraction on electron density irregularities in the ionosphere and are particularly relevant at equatorial and high latitude regions, especially during periods of high solar activity. As a consequence, degraded measurement quality and poorer positioning accuracy may result.     

Detrend effect on the scalograms of GPS power scintillation

The study of amplitude scintillation on GPS radio links is usually done after detrending the time series of the transmitted power so to define scintillations as the chaotic fluctuation around a unitary value. In a sense, the choice of how to detrend the time series is part of the definition of scintillation.     

Response of Hainan GPS ionospheric scintillations to the different strong magnetic storm conditions

Using the GPS ionospheric scintillation data at Hainan station (19.5°N, 109.1°E) in the eastern Asia equatorial regions and relevant ionospheric and geomagnetic data from July 2003 to June 2005, we investigate the response of L-band ionospheric scintillation activity over this region to different strong magnetic storm conditions (Dst < −100 nT) during the descending phase of the solar cycle. These strong storms and corresponding scintillations mainly took place in winter and summer seasons. When the main phase developed rapidly and reached the maximum near 20–21 LT (LT = UT + 8) after sunset, scintillations might occur in the following recovery phase. When the main phase maximum occurred shortly after midnight near 01–02 LT, following the strong scintillations in the pre-midnight main phase, scintillations might also occur in the post-midnight recovery phase. When the main phase maximum took place after 03 LT to the early morning hours no any scintillation could be observed in the latter of the night. Moreover, when the main phase maximum occurred during the daytime hours, scintillations could also hardly be observed in the following nighttime recovery phase, which might last until the end of recovery phase. Occasionally, scintillations also took place in the initial phase of the storm. During those scintillations associated with the nighttime magnetic storms, the height of F layer base (h’F) was evidently increased. However, the increase of F layer base height does not always cause the occurrence of scintillations, which indicates the complex interaction of various disturbance processes in ionosphere and thermosphere systems during the storms.     

Some Investigations on the Ionosphere during 2012–2014 in China

In this national biannual report, we will outline some recent progresses in ionospheric studies conducted by Chinese scientists since 2012. The mentioned aspects include: the solar activity control of the ionosphere; couplings between the ionosphere, lower atmosphere and plasmasphere;ionospheric climatology and disturbances; ionospheric irregularities and scintillation; models, data assimilation and simulations; unusual phenomena of the ionosphere; possible seismic signatures presented in ionospheric observations, and some methodology progresses. These progresses will enhance our ability to observe the ionosphere, provide more reasonable understanding about the states of the ionosphere and underlying fundamental processes, and stimulate ionospheric modeling, forecasting and related applications.     

Global ionospheric scintillations revealed by GPS radio occultation data with FY3C satellite before midnight during the March 2015 storm

Global observations of S4 amplitude scintillation index by the GPS Occultation Sounder (GNOS) on FengYun-3 C (FY3C) satellite reveal global dynamic patterns of a strong pre-midnight scintillations in F-region of the ionosphere during the St. Patrick’s Day geomagnetic super storm of 17–19 March 2015. The observed strong scintillations mainly occurred in the low latitudes, caused by equatorial plasma bubbles. During the main storm phase (March 17), the scintillations were first triggered in the New Zealand sector near 160°E longitudes, extending beyond 40°S dip latitude. They were also enhanced in the Indian sector, but significantly suppressed in East Asia near 120°E longitude and in Africa around 30°E longitude. During the initial recovery phase (March 18–19), the global scintillations were seldom observed in GNOS data. During the later recovery phase (after March 19), the scintillations recovered to the pre-storm level in Indian, African, and American sectors, but not in East Asian and any of Pacific sectors. These results closely correlate with observations of the density depletion structures by the Communication/Navigation Outage Forecasting System (C/NOFS) satellite, and ground-based instruments. Such consistency indicates reliability of our scintillation sensing approach even in a case-by-case comparison study. The prompt penetration electric field and disturbance dynamo electric field are suggested as the main factors that control the enhancement and inhibition of the scintillations during the storm, respectively.     

The multi-source data fusion global ionospheric modeling software—IonoGim

We introduce a new global ionospheric modeling software—IonoGim, using ground-based GNSS data, the altimetry satellite and LEO (Low Earth Orbit) occultation data to establish the global ionospheric model. The software is programmed by C++ with fast computing speed and highly automatic degree, it is especially suitable for automatic ionosphere modeling. The global ionospheric model and DCBs obtained from IonoGim were compared with the CODE (Center for Orbit Determination in Europe) to verify its accuracy and reliability. The results show that IonoGim and CODE have good agreement with small difference, indicating that IonoGim owns high accuracy and reliability, and can be fully applicable for high-precision ionospheric research. In addition, through comparison between only using ground-based GNSS observations and multi-source data model, it can be demonstrated that the space-based ionospheric data effectively improve the model precision in marine areas where the ground-based GNSS tracking station lacks.