scholarly journals Characterization of GPS-TEC in a low-latitude region over Thailand during 2010-2012

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Rajesh Chowdhary ◽  
Nitin K. Tripathi ◽  
Sanit Arunpold ◽  
Durairaju Kumaran Raju
Keyword(s):  
Ultra Violet ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Vertical Total Electron Content ◽  
Dual Frequency ◽  
Chiang Mai ◽  
International Gnss Service ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
Gps Tec ◽  
First Results ◽  
June July

<p>This paper presents the first results of vertical total electron content (VTEC) data from (1) a dual-frequency GPS receiver installed at the Chiang Mai University in Chiang Mai <em>(CHGM, 18.480 N, 98.570 E)</em> as part of SCINDA (Scintillation Network and Decision Aid) and (2) the International GNSS Service (IGS) station Pathum Wan (<em>CUSV, 13.735 N, 100.533 E</em>) with magnetic latitude of 8.69°N and 3.92°N respectively in Thailand, from August 2010 to July 2012. In the equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) region, these two stations are separated at a distance of 668 km. Observed GPS-TEC values were found to be the highest between 1500 and 1900 Local Time (LT) throughout the study period at both the stations. The GPS-TEC data from both the stations was plotted diurnal, monthly and seasonal analyses were performed. The equinox (March, April, September, and October) and solstice (January, February, June, July, and December) periods had maximum and minimum diurnal peak variations, respectively, of the GPS-TEC. High TEC values are attributed to extreme solar ultra-violet ionization coupled with upward vertical E×B drift. A comparison of the GPS-TEC data from both the stations for the study period shows that the CHGM station recorded higher values of TEC than the CUSV station because of the formation of an ionization crest over the CHGM station. The GPS-TEC values also exhibited an increasing trend-because of the approach of solar cycle 24. For data validation, the diurnal, monthly, and seasonal variations in the measured TEC were compared with the TEC modelled in the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) models (IRI-2007 and the recently released IRI-2012 model). The IRI-2007 shows good agreement with the data from 2010 to 2011 from both stations and IRI-2012 agrees well with the data from 2012 onwards compared to IRI-2007.</p>

Analysis of a new regional ionospheric assimilated H2PT model for Europe

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paulina Woźniak ◽  
Anna Świątek ◽  
Mariusz Pożoga ◽  
Łukasz Tomasik
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Satellite System ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Maximum Height ◽  
Vertical Total Electron Content ◽  
Dual Frequency ◽  
International Gnss Service ◽  
Statistical Parameters ◽  
Total Electron

&lt;p&gt;The signal emitted by the GNSS (&lt;em&gt;Global Navigation Satellite System&lt;/em&gt;) satellite, on the way to the receiver located on the Earth&amp;#8217;s surface, encounters a heterogeneous layer of ionized gas and free electrons, in which the radio wave is dispersed. As the ionosphere is the source of the highest-value errors among the different factors that affect GNSS positioning accuracy, it is necessary to minimize its negative impact. Various methods are used to compensate for the ionospheric delay, one of which is the usage of models.&lt;br&gt;The intensity of the processes occurring in the ionosphere is closely related to the Sun activity. As a consequence, with respect to a given location on the Earth's surface, the activity of the ionosphere changes throughout the year and day. Therefore, a model dedicated to a specific region is especially important in case of high-precision GNSS applications.&lt;br&gt;The assimilated H2PT model was based on the dual-frequency observations from GNSS stations belonging to EPN (&lt;em&gt;EUREF Permanent Network&lt;/em&gt;), as well as on ionosondes participating in the DIAS (&lt;em&gt;European Digital Upper Atmosphere Server&lt;/em&gt;) project. The H2PT model covers the Europe area, data with a 15-minutes interval were placed in similar to IONEX (&lt;em&gt;IONosphere Map EXchenge&lt;/em&gt;) files in two versions of spatial resolution: 1- and 5-degree. Data provided by the H2PT model are the VTEC (&lt;em&gt;Vertical Total Electron Content&lt;/em&gt;) values and the hmF2 (&lt;em&gt;maximum height of the F2 layer&lt;/em&gt;) parameters.&lt;br&gt;The subject of this research is the comparison of the H2PT model with NeQuick-G model and IONEX data published by IGS (&lt;em&gt;International GNSS Service&lt;/em&gt;) in the context of TEC values as well as determining differences between regional hmF2 data and its commonly used fixed value for the entire globe, amounting to 450 km. In order to perform the analysis, appropriate visualizations were made and statistical parameters determined. Additionally, data from selected periods of positive and negative disturbances were analysed in details based on the developed time series.&lt;br&gt;The relatively high temporal and spatial resolution is undoubtedly an advantage of the H2PT model, because unlike global models, the regional one allows conscientious analysis of the ionosphere characteristics for the area of Europe. Importantly, solutions regarding hmF2 show significant deviations from the fixed value approximated for the whole Earth. Taking into account the parameter appropriate for a given location and time during GNSS data processing may improve the obtained positioning quality.&amp;#160;&lt;/p&gt;

Ionosphere VTEC modeling with the raw-observation-based PPP model：an advantage demonstration in the multi-frequency and multi-GNSS context

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teng Liu ◽  
Baocheng Zhang ◽  
Yunbin Yuan ◽  
Xiao Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Rapid Development ◽  
Global Navigation Satellite Systems ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Vertical Total Electron Content ◽  
Dual Frequency ◽  
International Gnss Service ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
Satellite Systems ◽  
Triple Frequency ◽  
Global Navigation Satellite

&lt;p&gt;The ionospheric delay accounts for one of the major errors that the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) suffer from. Hence, the ionosphere Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) map has been an important atmospheric product within the International GNSS Service (IGS) since its early establishment. In this contribution, an enhanced method has been proposed for the modeling of the ionosphere VTECs. Firstly, to cope with the rapid development of the newly-established Galileo and BeiDou constellations in recent years, we extend the current dual-system (GPS/GLONASS) solution to a quad-system (GPS/GLONASS/Galileo/BeiDou) solution. More importantly, instead of using dual-frequency observations based on the Carrier-to-Code Leveling (CCL) method, all available triple-frequency signals are utilized with a general raw-observation-based multi-frequency Precise Point Positioning (PPP) model, which can process dual-, triple- or even arbitrary-frequency observations compatibly and flexibly. Benefiting from this, quad-system slant ionospheric delays can be retrieved based on multi-frequency observations in a more flexible, accurate and reliable way. The PPP model has been applied in both post-processing global and real-time regional VTEC modeling. Results indicate that with the improved slant ionospheric delays, the corresponding VTEC models are also improved, comparing with the traditional CCL method.&lt;/p&gt;

Validating the impact of various ionosphere correction on mid to long baselines and point positioning using GPS dual-frequency receivers

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alaa A. Elghazouly ◽  
Mohamed I. Doma ◽  
Ahmed A. Sedeek
Keyword(s):  
Geomagnetic Storms ◽  
Global Navigation Satellite Systems ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Assessment Procedure ◽  
Vertical Total Electron Content ◽  
Dual Frequency ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
Satellite Systems ◽  
Point Positioning ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Due to the ionosphere delay, which has become the dominant GPS error source, it is crucial to remove the ionospheric effect before estimating point coordinates. Therefore, different agencies started to generate daily Global Ionosphere Maps (GIMs); the Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) values represented in GIMs produced by several providers can be used to remove the ionosphere error from observations. In this research, An analysis will be carried with three sources for VTEC maps produced by the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE), Regional TEC Mapping (RTM), and the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI). The evaluation is focused on the effects of a specific ionosphere GIM correction on the precise point positioning (PPP) solutions. Two networks were considered. The first network consists of seven Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) receivers from (IGS) global stations. The selected test days are six days, three of them quiet, and three other days are stormy to check the influence of geomagnetic storms on relative kinematic positioning solutions. The second network is a regional network in Egypt. The results show that the calculated coordinates using the three VTEC map sources are far from each other on stormy days rather than on quiet days. Also, the standard deviation values are large on stormy days compared to those on quiet days. Using CODE and RTM IONEX file produces the most precise coordinates after that the values of IRI. The elimination of ionospheric biases over the estimated lengths of many baselines up to 1000 km has resulted in positive findings, which show the feasibility of the suggested assessment procedure.

scholarly journals Assessing Global Ionosphere TEC Maps with Satellite Altimetry and Ionospheric Radio Occultation Observations

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (24) ◽  
pp. 5489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wei Li ◽  
Longqiang Huang ◽  
Shaocheng Zhang ◽  
Yanju Chai
Keyword(s):  
High Latitude ◽  
Satellite Altimetry ◽  
Radio Occultation ◽  
Lower Latitude ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Dual Frequency ◽  
International Gnss Service ◽  
Night Time ◽  
Scaling Factors ◽  
Total Electron

As global navigation satellite system (GNSS)stations are sparsely distributed in oceanic area, oceanic areas usually have lower precision than continental areas on a global ionosphere maps (GIM). On the other hand, space-borne observations like satellite altimetry (SA) and ionospheric radio occultation (IRO) have substantial dual-frequency observations in oceanic areas, which could be used for total electron content (TEC) retrieval. In this paper, the Jason-2 SA and Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC) IRO products were used to assess the precision of IGS GIM products. Both the systematic biases and scaling factors between the international GNSS service (IGS) GIM TEC and space-borne TEC were calculated, and the statistical results show that the biases and the scaling factors obviously vary under different temporal-spatial conditions. This analysis shows that these differences are variable with diurnal and latitude factors, that is, the differences in biases during the day time are higher than those during the night time, and larger biases are experienced at lower latitude areas than at high latitude areas. The results also show that in the southern hemisphere middle-high latitude area and some other central oceanic areas, the space-borne TEC values are even higher than GIM TEC values. As the precision of space-borne TEC should be evenly distributed around different areas on Earth, it can be explain that the TEC in these areas is undervalued by the current GIM model, and the space-borne SA and IRO techniques could be used as complementary observations to improve the accuracy and reliability of TEC values in these areas.

scholarly journals Evaluation of the IGS–Global Ionospheric Mapping model over Egypt

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mostafa Rabah ◽  
Ahmed Sedeek
Keyword(s):  
North Africa ◽  
Evaluation Method ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Vertical Total Electron Content ◽  
International Gnss Service ◽  
Ionospheric Correction ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
The North ◽  
Using Data

Abstract. Global ionosphere maps (GIM) are generated on a daily basis at CODE using data from about 400 GPS/GLONASS sites of the IGS and other institutions. The vertical total electron content (VTEC) is modeled in a solar-geomagnetic reference frame using a Spherical Harmonics Expansion “SHE” up to degree and order 15. To cover the holes of the first GIM computation stage existing in the North Africa and over the Oceans resulting a shortage of GNSS station in North Africa, an optimum spatial-temporal interpolation technique was developed to cover these holes (Krankowski and Hernandez-Pajares, 2016). The current paper evaluates the ionospheric correction by Global Ionospheric Maps, GIM, provided in (IONEX) files produced by International GNSS Services “IGS”. The evaluation is performed based on investigating the effect of a given GIM ionospheric correction on kinematic relative positioning solutions. The evaluation was done using several baselines of different lengths in Egypt. The results show that there is no significant effect of the provided GIM values on the solution of kinematic processing. The results confirm that although there is a lack of International GNSS Service (IGS stations) over North Africa, GIMs have no effect in mitigating ionospheric error. A new value for the ionosphere correction VTEC values was obtained by a regional, developed algorithm based on zero-differenced phase ionospheric delay (ZDPID) (Tawfeek et al., 2018). These new values of VTEC were fed into GIMs for the specified stations data. A useful result was obtained for correcting the ionospheric error over kinematic solution of many baseline lengths up to 300 km which demonstrates validity of the proposed evaluation method.

scholarly journals ANALYSES OF TOTAL ELECTRON CONTENT VARIATIONS OVER NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN NIGERIA

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aghogho Ogwala
Keyword(s):  
Total Electron Content ◽  
Seasonal Variations ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Vertical Total Electron Content ◽  
Dual Frequency ◽  
The South ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
The North ◽  
December Solstice ◽  
Latitudinal Difference

Total electron content (TEC) is a parameter of the ionosphere that produces great effect on radio signals. We present the diurnal and seasonal variations of vertical total electron content (vTEC) during the ascending phase of solar cycle 24. A moderate solar activity year (2011) with sunspot number, Rz = 55.7 is used in this study. Total electron content (TEC) deduced from the dual frequency GPS measurements obtained at two ground stations namely: ABUZ (Zaria) with longitude 7.39oE in the north and UNEC (Enugu) with longitude 7.30oE in the south are considered. Both stations are located within the same longitude and has a latitudinal difference of 4.74o in the Nigerian equatorial ionosphere (NEI). Comparison of diurnal and seasonal variations of TEC is carried out for both stations. The diurnal variation of TEC shows a steep increase starting from sunrise, reaching daytime maximum between 13 – 15 LT at UNEC and 14 – 16 LT at ABUZ, then falls to a minimum at sunset. Dawn depression occurred at the same local time of 04 LT at both stations. On a seasonal scale, Pre- and post-midnight values were highest during the Equinoxes, followed by December solstice and least in June Solstice season at ABUZ. Pre- and post-midnight values were also higher during the Equinoxes than the Solstice season at UNEC, although they are about the same range. Also, TEC values are observed to be slightly higher for all hours and seasons at Enugu in the south than Zaria in the north except during March equinox at Zaria where TEC values were higher during the daytime. This implies that there could be little variations in TEC even within the same latitudinal zone.

scholarly journals Redes neurais artificiais aplicadas na previsão do VTEC no Brasil

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-246 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wagner Carrupt Machado ◽  
Edvaldo Simões da Fonseca Junior
Keyword(s):  
Total Electron Content ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Vertical Total Electron Content ◽  
International Gnss Service ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
De Se ◽  
Pierce Point ◽  
Global Ionospheric Maps

Uma forma de se prever o conteúdo total de elétrons na direção vertical (VTEC - Vertical Total Electron Content) usando a arquitetura de redes neurais artificiais (RNA) denominada de perceptrons de múltiplas camadas (MLP - MultipLayer Percetrons) é apresentada e avaliada nesta pesquisa. As entradas do modelo foram definidas como sendo a posição dos pontos ionosféricos (IPP - Ionospheric Pierce Point) e o tempo universal (TU), enquanto que a saída é o VTEC. As variações sazonais e de períodos mais longos são levadas em conta através da atualização do treinamento diariamente. Testes foram conduzidos sobre uma área que abrange o Brasil e sua vizinhança considerando períodos de alta e baixa atividade solar. As RNA foram treinadas utilizando informações dos mapas globais da ionosfera (GIM - Global Ionospheric Maps) produzidos pelo serviço internacional do GNSS (IGS - International GNSS Service) das 72 horas anteriores à época de início da previsão. As RNA treinadas foram utilizadas para prever o VTEC por 72 horas (VTEC RNA). Os VTEC RNA foram comparados com os VTEC contidos nos GIM (VTEC GIM). A raiz do erro médio quadrático (RMS) da diferença entre o VTEC GIM e o VTEC RNA variou de 1,4 a 10,7 unidades de TEC (TECU). O erro relativo mostra que a RNA proposta foi capaz de prever o VTEC com 70 a 85% de acerto.

scholarly journals A recurrent neural network approach to quantitatively studying solar wind effects on TEC derived from GPS; preliminary results

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (5) ◽  
pp. 2111-2125 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. B. Habarulema ◽  
L.-A. McKinnell ◽  
B. D. L. Opperman
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Solar Wind ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Wind Effects ◽  
Dual Frequency ◽  
Neural Network Approach ◽  
Elman Neural Network ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
Gps Tec ◽  
Tec Variability

Abstract. This paper attempts to describe the search for the parameter(s) to represent solar wind effects in Global Positioning System total electron content (GPS TEC) modelling using the technique of neural networks (NNs). A study is carried out by including solar wind velocity (Vsw), proton number density (Np) and the Bz component of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF Bz) obtained from the Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) satellite as separate inputs to the NN each along with day number of the year (DN), hour (HR), a 4-month running mean of the daily sunspot number (R4) and the running mean of the previous eight 3-hourly magnetic A index values (A8). Hourly GPS TEC values derived from a dual frequency receiver located at Sutherland (32.38° S, 20.81° E), South Africa for 8 years (2000–2007) have been used to train the Elman neural network (ENN) and the result has been used to predict TEC variations for a GPS station located at Cape Town (33.95° S, 18.47° E). Quantitative results indicate that each of the parameters considered may have some degree of influence on GPS TEC at certain periods although a decrease in prediction accuracy is also observed for some parameters for different days and seasons. It is also evident that there is still a difficulty in predicting TEC values during disturbed conditions. The improvements and degradation in prediction accuracies are both close to the benchmark values which lends weight to the belief that diurnal, seasonal, solar and magnetic variabilities may be the major determinants of TEC variability.

scholarly journals A Least Squares Solution to Regionalize VTEC Estimates for Positioning Applications

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 3545
Author(s):  
Saeed Farzaneh ◽  
Ehsan Forootan
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
South America ◽  
Least Squares ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Vertical Total Electron Content ◽  
Dual Frequency ◽  
Numerical Application ◽  
Total Electron ◽  
Band Limited

A new approach is presented to improve the spatial and temporal resolution of the Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) estimates for regional positioning applications. The proposed technique utilises a priori information from the Global Ionosphere Maps (GIMs) of the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE), provided in terms of Spherical Harmonic (SH) coefficients of up to degree and order 15. Then, it updates the VTEC estimates using a new set of base-functions (with better resolution than SHs) while using the measurements of a regional GNSS network. To achieve the highest accuracy possible, our implementation is based on a transformation of the GIM/CODE VTECs to their equivalent coefficients in terms of (spherical) Slepian functions. These functions are band-limited and reflect the majority of signal energy inside an arbitrarily defined region, yet their orthogonal property is remained. Then, new dual-frequency GNSS measurements are introduced to a Least Squares (LS) updating step that modifies the Slepian VTEC coefficients within the region of interest. Numerical application of this study is demonstrated using a synthetic example and ground-based GPS data in South America. The results are also validated against the VTEC estimations derived from independent GPS stations (that are not used in the modelling), and the VTEC products of international centres. Our results indicate that, by using 62 GPS stations in South America, the ionospheric delay estimation can be considerably improved. For example, using the new VTEC estimates in a Precise Point Positioning (PPP) experiment improved the positioning accuracy compared to the usage of GIM/CODE and Klobuchar models. The reductions in the root mean squared of errors were ∼23% and 25% for a day with moderate solar activity while 26% and ∼35% for a day with high solar activity, respectively.

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