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.     

Analysis of ionospheric TEC response to solar and geomagnetic activities at different solar activity stages

Studying the relationship of total electron content (TEC) to solar or geomagnetic activities at different solar activity stages can provide a reference for ionospheric modeling and prediction. On the basis of solar activity indices, geomagnetic activity parameters, and ionospheric TEC data at different solar activity stages, this study analyzes the overall variation relationships of solar and geomagnetic activities with ionospheric TEC, the characteristics of the quasi-27-day periodic oscillations of the three variables at different stages, and the delayed TEC response of solar activity by conducting correlation analysis, Butterworth band-pass filtering, Fourier transform, and time lag analysis. The following results are obtained. (1) TEC exhibits a significant linear relationship with solar activity at different solar activity stages. The correlation coefficients |R| are arranged as follows: |R|_EUV > |R|_F10.7 > |R|sunspot number. No significant linear relationship exists between TEC and geomagnetic activity parameters (|R| < 0.35). (2) TEC, solar activity indices, and geomagnetic activity parameters have a period of 10.5 years. The maximum amplitudes of the Fourier spectrum for TEC and solar activity indices are nearly 27 days and those of geomagnetic activity parameters are nearly 27 and 13.5 days. (3) The deviations of the quasi-27-day significant periodic oscillation of TEC and solar activity indices are consistent. (4) No evident relationship exists between the quasi-27-day periodic oscillation of TEC and geomagnetic activity parameters. (5) The delay time of TEC for the 10.7 cm solar radio flux and extreme ultraviolet is always consistent, whereas that for sunspot number varies at each stage.     

Precise orbit determination and precision comparison for FY3C and FY3D with receiver antenna GPS and BDS PCV using spaceborne BDS and GPS observation data

The FY3C and FY3D satellites were equipped with global navigation satellite occultation detector (GNOS) receivers that received both GPS and BDS-2 signals. For further improving precise orbit determination (POD) precisions, we estimated receiver GPS and BDS signal phase center variations (PCV) models with 2° and 5° resolutions and set the different weights for GPS and BDS-2 observations in the combined POD. The BDS-based POD precision using BDS-2 satellite antenna phase center offset (PCO) values from the China Satellite Navigation Office (CSNO) are not as accurate as those obtained from the International GNSS Service (IGS) Multi-GNSS experiments project (MGEX). The estimated receiver GPS and BDS PCV models with 2° and 5° resolutions were estimated from the GPS phase residuals of GPS-based POD and BDS phase residuals of combined POD, respectively. In most cases, the POD precisions using the estimated PCVs with 2° resolution are superior to those with 5° resolution. The precisions of the BDS-based POD and combined POD were both improved by introducing the receiver BDS PCV models. The weighting for GPS and BDS-2 observations can further improve the precision of the combined POD. The tested results of selected weights are better than those with equal weight in the combined POD. The experiment results show that orbital precisions of FY3C are worse than those of FY3D.     

NeQuick2 validation using multi-satellite and ground data

Global Navigation Satellite System’s (GNSS) positioning calculation is prone to ionospheric errors. Single frequency GNSS users receive ionospheric corrections through broadcast ionospheric models. Therefore, the accuracy of ionospheric models must be validated based on various geographic and geomagnetic conditions. In this work, an attempt is made to validate NeQuick2 electron density (Ne) using multiple sources of space-based and ground-based data at the Arabian Peninsula and for low solar activity conditions. These sources include space-based data from Swarm, DMSP and COSMIC-2 satellite constellations and ground-based data from GNSS receiver and the ionosonde. The period of this study is 1 year from October 2019 to September 2020. Analysis shows that the agreement between NeQuick2 and experimental Ne close to the peak density height depends on seasons and time of the day with the largest errors found in Autumn and during the daytime. NeQuick2 generally overestimates Ne during the daytime. During the early morning and evening hours, Ne estimates seem to be fairly accurate with slight underestimation in Winter and Spring. Estimation of slab thickness by NeQuick2 is found to be close to the values calculated using collocated ionosonde and GNSS receiver.     

Ionospheric climate index as a driving parameter for the NeQuick model

Ionospheric delay is one of the significant error sources for global navigation satellite system (GNSS) positioning. GNSSs broadcast the coefficients of the ionospheric model to correct ionospheric delay for single-frequency users. A modified three-dimensional model (NeQuick G) based on the NeQuick climatological model is adopted for Galileo users. The NeQuick G model uses the effective ionization level (Az) instead of the sunspot number as the driving parameter. In this study, we introduce the ionospheric climate index (ICI) as a new driving parameter for the NeQuick model. In comparison, the ICI-driven NeQuick model has a better performance than the Az-driven NeQuick G model at both low and high latitudes. In addition, only one GNSS station at low latitudes is required to calculate the ICI, which would save maintenance costs and improve the efficiency of updating the broadcast coefficients. This model has potential application value for future upgrades of Galileo’s ionospheric broadcast model.     

Decline of geomagnetic and ionospheric activity at earthquake during spotless Sun

We investigate the geomagnetic and ionospheric effects of seismic activity during 1954 Sun spotless days (SSL) from 1995 to 2020. Two subsets of earthquakes (EQ) are evaluated for 676 events observed with the depth D1 ≤ 30 km and 1278 events with D2 > 30 km and the total set SSL. Newly developed 1 h geomagnetic index Hpo and the ionospheric W_EQ index are used for the comparisons with the daily peak earthquake. The ionosphere W_EQ index is derived at the EQ epicenter from JPL GIM-TEC map within the cell of 2.5°×5°, in latitude φ and longitude λ surrounding the epicenter at radius of about 200 km. We use the method of superposed epoch with the zero epoch time t₀ taken at EQ to extract peak values of Hpo and W_EQ during t₀-24 h ≤ t < t₀ (preEQ) and t₀ < t ≤ t₀ + 24 h (postEQ). It is found that the magnitude of Hpo(t₀) is less that the both peaks of Hpo(preEQ) and Hpo(postEQ) in 91 % of events independent of EQ’s depth. Similar effect is observed with the peak of the positive/negative ionosphere indices and the absolute values of |W(preEQ)| and |W(postEQ)| the both exceeding |W_EQ| in 77 % of events. The seismic activity tends to increase towards the solar minimum when SSLs occur. Our results provide evidence that EQ-related geomagnetic and ionospheric activities experience decline of intensity at the time of EQ under SSL.     

基于FY-3C/VIRR地表温度数据的上海市热岛效应时空特征分析

城市热岛效应是当前城市生态领域关注的焦点问题之一。本文以上海为例，基于FY-3C/VIRR LST数据，通过计算研究区的热岛强度指数与热岛比例指数，定量分析上海市2019年全年城市热岛效应的时空变化特性。结果表明：上海市2019年全年各月份的总热岛区域面积均在40%以上，城市热岛效应较为显著，其中7月份总热岛区域面积最大；上海市热岛效应的空间分布呈现出“北热南冷”的格局，热岛效应主要分布在中部和北部； 上海市5—7月热带比例指数较高，为较严重热岛，随着8月份平均地表温度的继续升高，热岛比例指数有所下降。     

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.     

卫星在轨推进剂补加量测量方法精度研究

卫星在轨推进剂补加量的精确测量技术是在轨补加任务的关键技术之一。本文结合型号攻关结果，提出2种在轨推进剂补加量测量方法数学模型，分别是压力-体积-温度(PVT)法和超声波流量计法。首先，PVT法是一种通过补加前后受体卫星贮箱剩余量反算补加量的间接测量方法，而超声波流量计法是利用超声波顺逆流相位差进行测量的直接测量方法;其次，在推进剂补加量测量模型的基础上，进一步通过取变分的手段提出2种模型的精度分析解析模型，解析的精度分析模型不仅可用于定性分析影响测量精度的因素，还可量化评价各个因素对测量精度的影响;最后，利用现有在研单机的精度水平及精度分析解析模型分析了2种方法的测量精度，验证了方法的有效性。