一种用于电离层TEC监测的GNSS信号载波跟踪算法

全球卫星导航系统（GNSS）是电离层TEC监测中应用最普遍的手段. 目前方法通常是在传统导航用途的GNSS接收机输出的原始观测量基础上,经过数据后处理得到电离层TEC信息,其GNSS信号的跟踪处理算法依然采用GNSS导航接收机的算法. 针对GNSS系统用于电离层TEC监测的特殊性,提出一种称为GNSS双频信号和差联合跟踪的新算法,与传统方法相比,该算法直接跟踪电离层TEC的变化,可以提高电离层TEC跟踪的灵敏度和TEC的观测精度,改善电离层TEC监测性能.      

Comparison of Ionospheric Total Electron Content (TEC) over Sonmiani (Pakistan) with NeQuick-2 and IRI-2012 during July 2014 – June 2015

In this study, Total Electron Content (TEC) observations acquired by a GNSS receiver installed at Sonmiani (Geog. Coord. 25.19°N, 66.74°E, Geomag. Coord. 17.62°N, 141.5°E) are being reported for the first time. The data utilized is hourly instantaneous TEC values during 10 International Quiet Days (IQDs) per month from Jul-14 to Jun-15, totaling 120 observation days for monitoring nominal TEC. The findings confirm the semi-annual trend of TEC over Sonmiani, which lies at the northern crest of Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) region. The TEC measurements are then compared with NeQuick-2 and International Reference Ionosphere (IRI-2012) models. It was found that the TEC values derived from NeQuick-2 are in better agreement with GNSS measurements than those from IRI-2012. The TEC measurements also show seasonal variation which is largest during Equinox months. The TEC value in Dec solstice is higher than the Jun solstice, which confirms that the seasonal anomaly is playing a major role in this region during the course of study.     

Using the Global Navigation Satellite System and satellite altimetry for combined Global Ionosphere Maps

For deriving global maps of the Total Electron Content (TEC) from space geodetic techniques usually observations from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) are taken. However, the GNSS stations are inhomogeneously distributed, with large gaps particularly over the sea surface.     

Total electron content monitoring using triple frequency GNSS: Results with Giove-A/-B data

Triple frequency GNSS will be fully operational within the next decade, opening opportunities for new applications. Dual frequency GNSS already allow to study the ionosphere through the estimation of Total Electron Content (TEC). However, the precision is limited by the ambiguity resolution process. This paper studies a triple frequency TEC monitoring technique in which the use of Geometry-Free and Iono-Free linear combinations improves the ambiguity resolution process and therefore the precision of TEC. We have tested it on a set of triple frequency Giove-A/-B data from January and December 2008. The conclusions achieved are (1) TEC values are affected by an error of about 2–2.5 TECU produced through the ambiguity resolution process; (2) the error caused by the Geometric Free phase combination delays (hardware, multipath, noise, antenna phase center) on TEC is about 0.2 TECU; (3) the total error on TEC approximately reach 2–3 TECU.     

Seasonal variations of storm-time TEC at European middle latitudes

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) measurements of the Total Electron Content (TEC) from local (Dourbes, 50.1°N, 04.6°E) and European IGS (International GNSS Service) stations were used to obtain the TEC changes during the geomagnetic storms of the latest solar activity cycle. A common epoch analysis, with respect to geomagnetic storm intensity, season, and latitude, was performed on data representing nearly 300 storm events. In general, the storm-time behaviour of TEC shows clear positive and negative phases, relative to the non-storm (median) behaviour, with amplitudes that tend to increase during more intense storms. The most pronounced positive phase is observed during winter, while the strongest and yet shortest negative phase is detected during equinox. Average storm-time patterns in the TEC behaviour are deduced for potential use in ionosphere prediction services.     

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.     

On the estimation of regional covariance functions of TEC variations over Canada

Spatial and temporal variations of Total Electron Content (TEC) can affect GNSS high accuracy positioning. Enhanced estimation of ionospheric variations and their de-correlation can benefit differential and point positioning rapid solutions. Global and regional TEC maps can provide the overall state of ionopsheric variations in space and time domains within their accuracy limits. In this paper, these maps are exploited to retrieve ionospheric variations by means of variograms and their associated covariance functions of TEC residuals over Canadian region during geomagnetically quiet and disturbed conditions. A number of theoretical variogram functions are reviewed for modeling covariance of TEC residuals. The variogram modeling of residuals during a strong geomagnetic storm revealed variances of one order of magnitude larger compared to a rather quiet condition. Variogram models are also used in regional and local kriging interpolation experiments and their performances are evaluated. Global maps of TEC RMS by International GNSS Service and two of its analysis centres are also compared over the Canadian region during a two-year period. Realistic representation of regional variances using estimated variograms when compared to global ionospheric RMS maps are also presented.     

Diagnostics of equatorial and low latitude ionosphere by TEC mapping over Brazil

The total electron content (TEC) in the equatorial and low-latitude ionosphere over Brazil was monitored in two dimensions by using 2011 data from the ground-based global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver network operated by the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics. It was possible to monitor the spatial and temporal variations in TEC over Brazil continuously during both day and night with a temporal interval of 10 min and a spatial resolution of about 400 km. The daytime equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) and post-sunset plasma enhancement (PS-EIA) were monitored over an area corresponding to a longitudinal extension of 4000 km in South America. Considerable day-to-day variation was observed in EIA and PS-EIA. A large latitudinal and longitudinal gradient of TEC indicated a significant ionospheric range error in application of the GNSS positioning system. Large-scale plasma bubbles after sunset were also mapped over a wide range. Depletions with longitudinally separated by more than 800 km were observed. They were extended by more than 2000 km along the magnetic field lines and drifted eastward. It is expected that 2-dimensional TEC mapping can serve as a useful tool for diagnosing ionospheric weather, such as temporal and spatial variation in the equatorial plasma trough and crest, and particularly for monitoring the dynamics of plasma bubbles.     

GNSS reflectometry and remote sensing: New objectives and results

The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has been a very powerful and important contributor to all scientific questions related to precise positioning on Earth’s surface, particularly as a mature technique in geodesy and geosciences. With the development of GNSS as a satellite microwave (L-band) technique, more and wider applications and new potentials are explored and utilized. The versatile and available GNSS signals can image the Earth’s surface environments as a new, highly precise, continuous, all-weather and near-real-time remote sensing tool. The refracted signals from GNSS radio occultation satellites together with ground GNSS observations can provide the high-resolution tropospheric water vapor, temperature and pressure, tropopause parameters and ionospheric total electron content (TEC) and electron density profile as well. The GNSS reflected signals from the ocean and land surface could determine the ocean height, wind speed and wind direction of ocean surface, soil moisture, ice and snow thickness. In this paper, GNSS remote sensing applications in the atmosphere, oceans, land and hydrology are presented as well as new objectives and results discussed.     

Time series modeling and analysis of trends of daily averaged ionospheric total electron content

A 10.7 cm solar radio flux F10.7, geomagnetic planetary equivalent amplitude (Ap index), and period variations were considered in this paper to construct a linear model for daily averaged ionospheric total electron content (TEC). The correlation coefficient of the modeled results and International GNSS Service (IGS) observables was approximately 0.97, which implied that the model could accurately reflect the realistic variation characteristics of the daily averaged TEC. The influences of the different factors on TEC and its characteristics at different latitudes were examined with this model. Results show that solar activity, annual and semiannual cycles are the three most important factors that affect daily averaged TEC. Solar activity is the primary determinant of TEC during periods with high solar activity, whereas periodic factors primarily contribute to TEC during periods with minimum solar activity. The extent of the influences of the different factors on TEC exhibits obvious differences at varying latitudes. The magnitude of the semiannual variation becomes less significant with the increase in latitude. Furthermore, a geomagnetic storm causes an increase in TEC at low latitudes and a decrease at high latitudes.     

Ionospheric total electron content response to annular solar eclipse on June 21, 2020

The effects of physical events on the ionosphere structure is an important field of study, especially for navigation and radio communication. The paper presents the spatio-temporal ionospheric TEC response to the recent annular solar eclipse on June 21, 2020, which spans across two continents, Africa and Asia, and 14 countries. This eclipse took place on the same day as the June Solstice. The Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based TEC data of the Global Ionosphere Maps (GIMs), 9 International GNSS Service (IGS) stations and FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 (F7/C2) were utilized to analyze TEC response during the eclipse. The phases of the TEC time series were determined by taking the difference of the observed TEC values on eclipse day from the previous 5-day median TEC values. The results showed clear depletions in the TEC time series on June 21. These decreases were between 1 and 9 TECU (15–60%) depending on the location of IGS stations. The depletions are relatively higher at the stations close to the path of annular eclipse than those farther away. Furthermore, a reduction of about ?10 TECU in the form of an equatorial plasma bubble (EPB) was observed in GIMs at ~20° away from the equator towards northpole, between 08:00–11:00 UT where its maximum phase is located in southeast Japan. Additionally, an overall depletion of ~10% was observed in F7/C2 derived TEC at an altitude of 240 km (hmF2) in all regions affected by the solar eclipse, whereas, significant TEC fluctuations between the altitudes of 100 km ? 140 km were analyzed using the Savitzky-Golay smoothing filter. To prove TEC depletions are not caused by space weather, the variation of the sunspot number (SSN), solar wind (V_SW), disturbance storm-time (Dst), and Kp indices were investigated from 16th to 22nd June. The quiet space weather before and during the solar eclipse proved that the observed depletions in the TEC time series and profiles were caused by the annular solar eclipse.     

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.     

基于NTCM-BC模型的全球卫星导航系统单频电离层延迟修正

选择NTCM-BC模型作为单频电离层延迟修正模型,通过非线性最小二乘拟合的方法,利用提前一天预测的电离层图（COPG文件）,计算得到NTCM-BC模型修正系数;利用Klobuchar模型和IGS发布的GIM数据对NTCM-BC模型进行比较和分析.对太阳活动高、中、低年实测数据的分析结果表明:全球平均水平上,NTCM-BC模型的电离层延迟修正性能明显优于Klobuchar模型,NTCM-BC模型的TEC平均误差和均方根误差比Klobuchar模型分别下降了41%和30%;模型的TEC计算误差与太阳活动剧烈程度成正相关,即太阳活动高年模型误差较大,太阳活动低年误差相对较低.相较于磁静日,磁扰日期间Klobuchar模型和NCTM模型的误差均有一定程度的增加.此外,模型的电离层修正误差同时存在明显的纬度、季节和地方时差异.      

一种基于GNSS数据的全球电离层不规则结构活动表征方法

针对如何利用GNSS(Global Navigation Satellite System)数据进行电离层扰动监测的问题,提出了一种基于GNSS数据表征全球电离层扰动的方法.利用大约400个GNSS地面站点的观测数据,计算总电子含量(Total Electron Content,TEC)变化率的标准差——ROTI(Ra...     

Comparison of observed TEC values with IRI-2007 TEC and IRI-2007 TEC with optional foF2 measurements predictions at an equatorial region,Chumphon, Thailand

In this research, as part of working towards improving the IRI over equatorial region, the total electron content (TEC) derived from GPS measurements and IRI-2007 TEC predictions at Chumphon station (10.72°N, 99.37°E), Thailand, during 2004–2006 is analyzed. The seasonal variation of the IRI-2007 TEC predictions is compared with the TEC from the IRI-2007 TEC model with the option of the actual F2 plasma frequency (foF2) measurements as well as the TEC from the GPS and International GNSS service (IGS). The Chumphon station is located at the equatorial region and the low latitude of 3.22°N. For a declining phase of the solar cycle (2004–2006), the study shows that the IRI-2007 TEC underestimates the IRI-2007 TEC with the foF2 observation at the nighttime by about 5 TECU. The maximum differences are about 15 TECU during daytime and 5 TECU during nighttime. The overestimation is more evident at daytime than at nighttime. When compared in terms of the root-mean square error (RMSE), we find that the highest RMSE between GPS TEC and IRI 2007 TEC is 14.840 TECU at 1230 LT in 2004 and the lowest average between them is 1.318 TECU at 0630 LT in 2006. The noon bite-out phenomena are clearly seen in the IRI-2007 TEC with and without optional foF2 measurements, but not on the GPS TEC and IGS TEC. The IRI TEC with optional foF2 measurements gives the lowest RMSE values between IRI TEC predicted and TEC measurement. However, the TEC measurements (GPS TEC and IGS TEC) are more correct to use at Chumphon station.     

Ionospheric TEC prediction using hybrid method based on ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and long short-term memory (LSTM) deep learning model over India

Total electron data (TEC) from GPS nowadays can be used as a tool for understanding the space weather phenomena. The development of prediction model for TEC is quiet crucial and challenging due to the dynamic behavior of the ionosphere, since it depends on different factors such as seasonal, diurnal and spatial variations, solar geomagnetic conditions etc. In this paper, an attempt is made for predicting the GPS derived TEC values for different GNSS stations over India using a hybrid method based on Ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) deep learning method. The daily TEC time series data from the IISc Bangalore (Latitude 13.021, Longitude 77.570), Lucknow (Latitude 26.912, Longitude 80.956) and Hyderabad (Latitude 17.417, Longitude 78.551) stations over India during the period 2008 to 2015 of solar cycle 23 and 24 is used for analysis. The assessment of model performance for testing predicted output compared with LSTM and EMD-LSTM models, and their comparison results show that the hybrid EEMD-LSTM model presents better than the other models.     

SHAKING: Adjusted spherical harmonics adding KrigING method for near real-time ionospheric modeling with multi-GNSS observations

Precise positioning based on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) technique requires high accuracy ionospheric total electron content (TEC) correction models to account for the ionospheric path delay errors. We present an adjusted Spherical Harmonics Adding KrigING method (SHAKING) approach for regional ionospheric vertical TEC (VTEC) modeling in real time. In the proposed SHAKING method, the VTEC information over the sparse observation data area is extrapolated by the Adjusted Spherical Harmonic (ASH) function, and the boundary distortion in regional VTEC modeling is corrected by the stochastic VTEC estimated using Kriging interpolation. Using real-time GPS, GLONASS and BDS-2/3 data streams of the Crust Movement Observation Network of China (CMONOC), the SHAKING-based regional ionospheric VTEC maps are re-constructed over China and its boundary regions. Compared to GNSS VTECs derived from the independent stations, the quality of SHAKING solution improves by 13–31% and 6–33% with respect to the ASH-only solution during high and low geomagnetic periods, respectively. Compared to the inverse distance weighting (IDW) generated result, significant quality improved of SHAKING-based VTEC maps is also observed, especially over the edge areas with an improvement of 60–80%. Overall, the proposed SHAKING method exhibits notable advantage over the existing regional VTEC modeling techniques, which can be used for regional TEC modeling and associated high-precision positioning applications.     

The ionospheric response to high-intensity long duration continuous AE activity (HILDCAA) event (13–15 April 2005) over mid-latitude African region

The ionospheric responses to High-Intensity Long Duration Continuous Auroral Electrojet Activity (HILDCAA) event which happened following the CIR-driven storm were studied over the southern hemisphere mid-latitude in the African sector. The 13–15 April 2005 event was analysed to understand some of the mechanisms responsible for the ionospheric changes during HILDCAA event. The ionosonde critical frequency of F2 layer (foF2) and Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Total Electron Content (TEC) were used to analyse the ionospheric responses. The daytime increase in foF2 and TEC values were observed on 13 April 2005. The TEC and foF2 enhancement could be attributed to Large Scale Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances (LSTIDs), increase in thermospheric neutral composition changes, Prompt Penetration Electric Field (PPEF) and an expansion of Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) to the mid-latitude.     

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.