Higher order ionospheric propagation effects on GPS radio occultation signals

With the increasing number of remote sensing satellites using the GPS radio occultation technique for atmospheric sounding, the estimation of higher order ionospheric effects and their mitigation have become relevant and important. Due to long ionospheric limb paths, GPS signals are strongly affected by ionospheric refraction during radio occultation. Standard dual-frequency GPS measurements may be used to estimate the first order term of the refractive index. However, non-linear terms such as the second and third order ionospheric terms and ray path bending effects are not considered in occultation measurements so far. Analysing selected CHAMP–GPS occultation events different higher order ionospheric terms are estimated and their effects on dual-frequency range estimation and total electron content (TEC) estimation are discussed. We have found that the separation between the GPS L1 and L2 ray paths exceeds the kilometer level during occultation for a vertical TEC level of more than 160 TEC units. Corresponding errors in the GPS dual-frequency range estimation and TEC estimation are found to exceed the meter and 10 TEC units level, respectively.     

Demonstration of the use of the Doppler Orbitography and Radio positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS) measurements to validate GPS ionospheric imaging

There is a lack of independent ionospheric data that can be used to validate GPS imaging results at mid latitudes over severe storm times. Doppler Orbitography and Radio positioning Integrated by Satellite (DORIS), a global network of dual-frequency ground to satellite observations, provides this missing data and here is employed as verification to show the accuracy of the ionospheric GPS images in terms of the total electron content (TEC). In this paper, the large-scale ionospheric structures that appeared during the strong geomagnetic storm of 20 November 2003 are reconstructed with a GPS tomographic algorithm, known as MIDAS, and validated with DORIS TEC measurements. The main trough shown in an extreme equatorward position in the ionospheric imaging over mainland Europe is confirmed by DORIS satellite measurements. Throughout the disturbed day, the variations of relative slant TECs between DORIS data and MIDAS results agree quite well, with the average of the mean differences about 2 TECu. We conclude that as a valuable supplement to GPS data, DORIS ionospheric measurements can be used to analyse TEC variations with a relatively high resolution, ∼10 s in time and tens of kilometres in space. This will be very helpful for identification of some highly dynamic structures in the ionosphere found at mid-latitudes, such as the main trough, TID (Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances) and SED (Storm Enhanced Density), and could be used as a valuable auxiliary data source in ionospheric imaging.     

Ionospheric effects of the solar flares as deduced from global GPS network data

Results derived from analysing the ionospheric response to faint and bright solar flares are presented. The analysis used novel technology of a global detection of ionospheric effects from solar flares as developed by the authors (Afraimovich, 2000a; Afraimovich, 2000b), on the basis of phase measurements of the total electron content (TEC) in the ionosphere using an international GPS network. The essence of the method is that use is made of appropriate filtering and a coherent processing of variations in the TEC which is determined from GPS data, simultaneously for the entire set of visible GPS satellites at all stations used in the analysis. This technique is useful for identifying the ionospheric response to faint solar flares (of X-ray class C) when the variation amplitude of the TEC response to separate line-on-sight (LOS) is comparable to the level of background fluctuations. The dependence of the TEC variation response amplitude on the flare location on the Sun is investigated.     

Regional 4-D modeling of the ionospheric electron density from satellite data and IRI

Accurate knowledge of the electron density is the key point in correcting ionospheric delays of electromagnetic measurements and in studying ionosphere physics. During the last decade Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) have become a promising tool for monitoring ionospheric parameters such as the total electron content (TEC). In this contribution we present a four-dimensional (4-D) model of the electron density consisting of a given reference part, i.e., the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI), and an unknown correction term expanded in terms of multi-dimensional base functions. The corresponding series coefficients are calculable from the satellite measurements by applying parameter estimation procedures. Since satellite data are usually sampled between GPS satellites and ground stations, finer structures of the electron density are modelable just in regions with a sufficient number of ground stations. The proposed method is applied to simulated geometry-free GPS phase measurements. The procedure can be used, for example, to study the equatorial anomaly.     

Use of varying shell heights derived from ionosonde data in calculating vertical total electron content (TEC) using GPS – New method

The dispersive nature of the ionosphere makes it possible to measure its total electron content (TEC). Thus Global Positioning System, which uses dual-frequency radio signals, is an ideal system to measure TEC. When data from an ionosonde situated in polar region was observed, the height of an approximated thin shell of electrons (shell height) used in GPS studies was seen not to be fixed but rather changing with time. Here we introduce a new method in which we included the varying shell heights derived from the ionosonde to map the slant total electron content from GPS to obtain a more precise vertical total electron content of the ionosphere contrary to some previous methods which used fixed shell heights. In this paper we also compared the ionosonde derived TEC with the GPS derived vertical TEC (vTEC) values. These GPS vTEC values were obtained from GPS slant TEC (sTEC) measurements using both fixed shell height and varying shell heights (from ionosonde measurements). For the polar regions, the varying shell height approach produced better results than the fixed shell height and compared to exponential function, Chapman function seems to be a better function to model the topside ionosphere.     

Ionospheric anomalies observed over South Korea preceding the Great Tohoku earthquake of 2011

We investigated the ionospheric anomalies observed before the Tohoku earthquake, which occurred near the northeast coast of Honshu, Japan on 11 March, 2011. Based on data from a ground-based Global Positioning System (GPS) network on the Korean Peninsula, ionospheric anomalies were detected in the total electron content (TEC) during the daytime a few days before earthquake. Ionospheric TEC anomalies appeared on 5, 8 and 11 March. In particular, the ionospheric disturbances on 8 March evidenced a remarkable increase in TEC. The GPS TEC variation associated with the Tohoku earthquake was an increase of approximately 20 total electron content units (TECU), observed simultaneously in local and global TEC measurements. To investigate these pre-earthquake ionospheric anomalies, space weather conditions such as the solar activity index (F10.7) and geomagnetic activity indices (the Kp and Dst indices) were examined. We also created two-dimensional TEC maps to visual the spatial variations in the ionospheric anomalies preceding the earthquake.     

Multi-station observation of ionospheric irregularities over South Africa during strong geomagnetic storms

This paper presents results pertaining to the response of the mid-latitude ionosphere to strong geomagnetic storms that occurred from 31 March to 02 April 2001 and 07–09 September 2002. The results are based on (i) Global Positioning Systems (GPSs) derived total electron content (TEC) variations accompanying the storm, (ii) ionosonde measurements of the ionospheric electrodynamic response towards the storms and (iii) effect of storm induced travelling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) on GPS derived TEC. Ionospheric data comprising of ionospheric TEC obtained from GPS measurements, ionograms, solar wind data obtained from Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) and magnetic data from ground based magnetometers were used in this study. Storm induced features in vertical TEC (VTEC) have been obtained and compared with the mean VTEC of quiet days. The response of the mid-latitude ionosphere during the two storm periods examined may be characterised in terms of increased or decreased level of VTEC, wave-like structures in VTEC perturbation and sudden enhancement in hmF2 and h′F. The study reveals both positive and negative ionospheric storm effects on the ionosphere over South Africa during the two strong storm conditions. These ionospheric features have been mainly attributed to the travelling ionospheric disturbances (TIDs) as the driving mechanism for the irregularities causing the perturbations observed. TEC perturbations due to the irregularities encountered by the satellites were observed on satellites with pseudo random numbers (PRNs) 15, 17, 18 and 23 between 17:00 and 23:00 UT on 07 September 2002.     

Application of BDS-GEO for studying TEC variability in equatorial ionosphere on different time scales

The Earth's ionosphere and especially its equatorial part is a highly dynamical medium. Geostationary satellites are known to be a powerful tool for ionospheric studies. Recent developments in BDS-GEO satellites allow such studies on the new level due to the best noise pattern in TEC estimations, which corresponds to those of GPS/GLONASS systems. Here we used BDS-GEO satellites to demonstrate their capability for studying equatorial ionosphere variability on different time scales. Analyzing data from the equatorial SIN1 IGS station we present seasonal variations in geostationary slant TEC for the periods of high (October 2013 - October 2014) and low (January 2017 - January 2018) solar activity, which show semi-annual periodicity with amplitudes about 10 TECU during solar maximum and about 5 TECU during the solar minimum. The 27-day variations are also prominent in geostationary slant TEC variations, which correlates quite well with the variations in solar extreme UV radiation. We found semi-annual pattern in small scale ionospheric disturbances evaluated based on geostationary ROTI index: maximal values correspond to spring and fall equinoxes and minimum values correspond to summer and winter solstices. The seasonal asymmetry in ROTI values was observed: spring equinox values were almost twice as higher than fall equinox ones. We also present results on the 2017 May 28–29 G3 geomagnetic storm, when ～30 TECU positive anomaly was recorded, minor and final major sudden stratospheric warmings in February and March 2016, with positive daytime TEC anomalies up to 15–20 TECU, as well as the 2017 September 6 X9.3 solar flare with 2 TECU/min TEC rate. Our results show the large potential of geostationary TEC estimations with BDS-GEO signals for continuous monitoring of space weather effects in low-latitude and equatorial ionosphere.     

Global characteristics of ionospheric electric fields and disturbances during the first hours of magnetic storms

The ionospheric plasma density can be significantly disturbed during magnetic storms. In the conventional scenario of ionospheric storms, the negative storm phases with plasma density decreases are caused by neutral composition changes, and the positive storm phases with plasma density increases are often related to atmospheric gravity waves. However, recent studies show that the global redistribution of the ionospheric plasma is dominated primarily by electric fields during the first hours of magnetic storms. In this paper, we present the measurements of ionospheric disturbances by the DMSP satellites and GPS network during the magnetic storm on 6 April 2000. The DMSP measurements include the F region ion velocity and density at the altitude of ∼840 km, and the GPS receiver network provides total electron content (TEC) measurements. The storm-time ionospheric disturbances show the following characteristics. The plasma density is deeply depleted in a latitudinal range of ∼20° over the equatorial region in the evening sector, and the depletions represent plasma bubbles. The ionospheric plasma density at middle latitudes (20°–40° magnetic latitudes) is significantly increased. The dayside TEC is increased simultaneously over a large latitudinal range. An enhanced TEC band forms in the afternoon sector, goes through the cusp region, and enters the polar cap. All the observed ionospheric disturbances occur within 1–5 h from the storm sudden commencement. The observations suggest that penetration electric fields play a major role in the rapid generation of equatorial plasma bubbles and the simultaneous increases of the dayside TEC within the first 2 h during the storm main phase. The ionospheric disturbances at later times may be caused by the combination of penetration electric fields and neutral wind dynamo process.     

大耀斑期间向日面电离层总电子含量的响应个例分析

利用2001年4月15日1336UT耀斑爆发期间向日面GPS观测数据提取的总电子含量的时间变化曲线。分析了向日面电离层对这次耀斑的响应特点．结果表明，耀斑期间向日面电离层出现了总电子含量突增事件．最大总电子含量增加量约为2．6TECU，在0600LT和1800LT都观测到了总电子含量突增，世增加幅度仅为0．5-1TECU．在高纬地区，由于电离层闪烁，从TEC时间变化曲线提取不出来总电子含量增加值．从各卫星星下点处的TEC增加量和各星下点处的太阳天顶角的关系可以看到，TEC增加量与太阳天顶角有关，太阳天顶角越大，TEC增幅越小。另外，从总电子含量时间变化率曲线上还观测到了时间同步的小尺度扰动，通过与耀斑期间硬X射线辐射通量的比较，发现两者有明显的相关性，电离层中的这种扰动与耀斑期间的硬X射线或远紫外辐射有关．     

Calibration errors in determining slant Total Electron Content (TEC) from multi-GNSS data

The global navigation satellite system (GNSS) is presently a powerful tool for sensing the Earth's ionosphere. For this purpose, the ionospheric measurements (IMs), which are by definition slant total electron content biased by satellite and receiver differential code biases (DCBs), need to be first extracted from GNSS data and then used as inputs for further ionospheric representations such as tomography. By using the customary phase-to-code leveling procedure, this research comparatively evaluates the calibration errors on experimental IMs obtained from three GNSS, namely the US Global Positioning System (GPS), the Chinese BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), and the European Galileo. On the basis of ten days of dual-frequency, triple-GNSS observations collected from eight co-located ground receivers that independently form short-baselines and zero-baselines, the IMs are determined for each receiver for all tracked satellites and then for each satellite differenced for each baseline to evaluate their calibration errors. As first derived from the short-baseline analysis, the effects of calibration errors on IMs range, in total electron content units, from 1.58 to 2.16, 0.70 to 1.87, and 1.13 to 1.56 for GPS, Galileo, and BDS, respectively. Additionally, for short-baseline experiment, it is shown that the code multipath effect accounts for their main budget. Sidereal periodicity is found in single-differenced (SD) IMs for GPS and BDS geostationary satellites, and the correlation of SD IMs over two consecutive days achieves the maximum value when the time tag is around 4?min. Moreover, as byproducts of zero-baseline analysis, daily between-receiver DCBs for GPS are subject to more significant intra-day variations than those for BDS and Galileo.     

不同太阳活动条件下电离层形态对估算GPS系统硬件延迟的影响

利用两个中纬度台站GPS观测数据提取的GPS卫星硬件延迟,分析了不同太阳活动情况下估算的硬件延迟稳定性和统计特征,结合同期电离层观测数据,研究了电离层状态对硬件延迟估算结果的影响.研究结果表明,基于太阳活动高年(2001年)GPS观测数据估算的硬件延迟稳定性要低于太阳活动低年GPS观测数据的估算结果,利用2001年GPS数据估算的卫星硬件延迟年标准偏差(RMS)平均值约为1TECU,而2009年GPS数据估算的卫星硬件延迟年标准偏差平均值约为0.8TECU.通过对2001年和2009年北京地区电离层F₂层最大电子密度(N_mF₂)变化性分析,结合GPS硬件延迟估算方法对电离层时空变化条件的要求,认为硬件延迟稳定性与太阳活动强度的联系是由不同太阳活动条件下电离层变化的强度差异引起的.      

Regional 4-D modeling of the ionospheric electron density

The knowledge of the electron density is the key point in correcting ionospheric delays of electromagnetic measurements and in studying the ionosphere. During the last decade GNSS, in particular GPS, has become a promising tool for monitoring the total electron content (TEC), i.e., the integral of the electron density along the ray-path between the transmitting satellite and the receiver. Hence, geometry-free GNSS measurements provide informations on the electron density, which is basically a four-dimensional function depending on spatial position and time. In addition, these GNSS measurements can be combined with other available data including nadir, over-ocean TEC observations from dual-frequency radar altimetry (T/P, JASON, ENVISAT), and TECs from GPS-LEO occultation systems (e.g., FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC, CHAMP) with heterogeneous sampling and accuracy.     

Epochwise prediction of GPS single differenced ionospheric delays of formation flying spacecraft

Both single and dual frequency GPS relative navigation filters may benefit from proper predictions of single differenced ionospheric delays. In this article, the single differenced ionospheric delays of GPS observations are predicted for the GRACE formation during the switch manoeuvre.Two prediction methods are considered. The first is based on a Taylor expansion to first order of a mapping function that maps slant total electron content measurements to vertical total electron content estimates. The second method fits a shape profile through undifferenced ionospheric data available. It then raytraces through this profile to estimate the difference in total electron content along the path of the GPS signals.Continuously changing ionospheric conditions hamper the assessment of the quality of the predictions. Comparison of both methods shows that the raytracing method performs better. The difference of predictions and measurements generally shows a smaller RMS than the measurements alone. However, both methods suffer from a number of systematically unpredicted observations, which arise from small unaccounted differential variations in electron densities along the path of the GPS signals. These prediction methods perform better when spacecraft separation is small. Baselines considered here range from tens of kilometres down to several hundred metres. When smallest spacecraft separation occurs (0.4 km), the single differenced ionospheric delays exhibit RMS values of 0.0089 m. The first method shows a difference between measurements and predictions with an RMS of 0.0081 m. For the second method the difference RMS is found to be 0.0067 m.     

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.     

Large-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances of auroral origin according to the data of the GPS network and ionosondes

The intensity of large-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (LS TIDs), registered using measurements of total electron content (TEC) during the magnetic storms on October 29–31, 2003, and on November 7–11, 2004, had been compared with that of local electron density disturbances. The data of TEC measurements at ground-based GPS receivers located near the ionospheric stations and the corresponding values of the critical frequency of the ionospheric F region f_oF2 were used for this purpose. The variations of TEC and f_oF2 were similar for all events mentioned above. The previous assumption that the ionospheric region with vertical extension from 150 to 200 km located near the F-layer maximum mainly contributes to the TEC variations was confirmed for the cases when the electron density disturbance at the F region maximum was not more than 50%. However, this region probably becomes vertically more extended when the electron density disturbance in the ionospheric F region is about 85%.     

Estimation and analysis of GPS receiver differential code biases using KGN in Korean Peninsula

The total electron content (TEC) estimation by the Global Positioning System (GPS) can be seriously affected by the differential code biases (DCB), referred to as inter-frequency biases (IFB), of the satellite and receiver so that an accuracy of GPS–TEC value is dependent on the error of DCBs estimation. In this paper, we proposed the singular value decomposition (SVD) method to estimate the DCB of GPS satellites and receivers using the Korean GPS network (KGN) in South Korea. The receiver DCBs of about 49 GPS reference stations in KGN were determined for the accurate estimation of the regional ionospheric TEC. They obtained from the daily solution have large biases ranging from +5 to +27 ns for geomagnetic quiet days. The receiver DCB of SUWN reference station was compared with the estimates of IGS and JPL global ionosphere map (GIM). The results have shown comparatively good agreement at the level within 0.2 ns. After correction of receiver DCBs and knowing the satellite DCBs, the comparison between the behavior of the estimated TEC and that of GIMs was performed for consecutive three days. We showed that there is a good agreement between KASI model and GIMs.     

Analysis of the ionosphere/plasmasphere electron content variability during strong geomagnetic storm

The ionosphere/plasmasphere electron content (PEC) variations during strong geomagnetic storms in November 2004 were estimated by combining of mid-latitude Kharkov incoherent scatter radar observations and GPS TEC data derived from global TEC maps. The comparison between two independent measurements was performed by analysis of the height-temporal distribution for specific location corresponding to the mid-latitudes of Europe. The percentage contribution of PEC to GPS TEC indicated the clear dependence from the time with maximal values (more than 70%) during night-time. During day-time the lesser values (30–45%) were observed for quiet geomagnetic conditions and rather high values of the PEC contribution to GPS TEC (up to 90%) were observed during strong negative storm. These changes can be explained by the competing effects of electric fields and winds, which tend to raise the layer to the region with lower loss rate and movement of the ionospheric plasma to the plasmasphere.     

Validate the IRI2007 model by the COSMIC slant TEC data during the extremely solar minimum of 2008

During 2008, the solar activity is extremely low. The satellite observations show that the ionospheric height and electron density is much lower than the predictions by the international reference ionosphere (IRI) model. In this paper, we compared the slant total electron content (TEC) observed by the COSMIC satellites during 2008 with the IRI model results. It is found that the IRI model with IRI2001 and IRI2001 Cor. topside options will always overestimate the electron density in both lower and higher altitudes. But the rest two topside options (NeQuick, and TTS) tend to overestimate the electron density in the F layer and underestimate it in the topside altitudes. The switch altitude between overestimation and underestimation and the latitude-local time distribution of the model deviation depend on the topside option. The current investigation might be useful for the model improvement as well as data assimilation work based on the IRI model and the LEO TEC data.     

Dayside ionospheric uplift during strong geomagnetic storms as detected by the CHAMP,SAC-C,TOPEX and Jason-1 satellites

Ionosphere response to severe geomagnetic storms that occurred in 2001–2003 was analyzed using data of global ionosphere maps (GIM), altimeter data from the Jason-1 and TOPEX satellites, and data of GPS receivers on-board CHAMP and SAC-C satellites. This allowed us to study in detail ionosphere redistribution due to geomagnetic storms, dayside ionospheric uplift and overall dayside TEC increase. It is shown that after the interplanetary magnetic field turns southward and intensifies, the crests of the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) travel poleward and the TEC value within the EIA area increases significantly (up to ∼50%). GPS data from the SAC-C satellite show that during the main phase of geomagnetic storms TEC values above the altitude of 715 km are 2–3 times higher than during undisturbed conditions. These effects of dayside ionospheric uplift occur owing to the “super-fountain effect” and last few hours while the enhanced interplanetary electric field impinged on the magnetopause.