GPS and ionospheric scintillations

Kintner, P. M.; Ledvina, B. M.; Paula, E. R. de

doi:10.1029/2006sw000260

Cited by 585 publications

(532 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…Given the morphology of the Earth's magnetic field, the geographic regions in which scintillations are more likely to occur are the polar and the equatorial areas, exacerbating in the low latitude regions (Kintner et al 2007). At low latitudes, the so-called ''fountain effect'', due to the interplay between E · B drift, gravity and pressure gradients, leads to an enhancement of ionization in the regions close to ±15°magnetic latitude.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

L-band scintillations and calibrated total electron content gradients over Brazil during the last solar maximum

Cesaroni

Spogli

Alfonsi

et al. 2015

J. Space Weather Space Clim.

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This work presents a contribution to the understanding of the ionospheric triggering of L-band scintillation in the region over São Paulo state in Brazil, under high solar activity. In particular, a climatological analysis of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) data acquired in 2012 is presented to highlight the relationship between intensity and variability of the total electron content (TEC) gradients and the occurrence of ionospheric scintillation. The analysis is based on the GNSS data acquired by a dense distribution of receivers and exploits the integration of a dedicated TEC calibration technique into the Ground Based Scintillation Climatology (GBSC), previously developed at the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia. Such integration enables representing the local ionospheric features through climatological maps of calibrated TEC and TEC gradients and of amplitude scintillation occurrence. The disentanglement of the contribution to the TEC variations due to zonal and meridional gradients conveys insight into the relation between the scintillation occurrence and the morphology of the TEC variability. The importance of the information provided by the TEC gradients variability and the role of the meridional TEC gradients in driving scintillation are critically described.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

L-band scintillations and calibrated total electron content gradients over Brazil during the last solar maximum

Cesaroni

Spogli

Alfonsi

et al. 2015

J. Space Weather Space Clim.

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show abstract

“…Previous studies found that ionospheric structures, such as the sporadic E (Es), equatorial plasma irregularities (EPIs), equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA), polar patches, and auroral blobs, can cause additional influence on the GNSS signal (e.g., Basu et al, 1980Basu et al, , 2002Crowley et al, 2000;Kintner et al, 2004Kintner et al, , 2007Yue et al, 2016). These ionospheric structures with spatial scales from hundreds of kilometers down to meters produce rapid fluctuations of the received signal phase and amplitude termed as scintillations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In some worse cases, the signal can even be interrupted or cause navigation failure. From a global view, scintillations on GNSS are more severe and frequent at low latitudes, particularly during post-sunset hours and high solar activity years, and at high latitudes scintillations also occur but less severe in magnitude (Kintner et al, 2007). Until now, the ionospheric scintillation is still one of the most challenging problems in GNSS navigation (Basu et al, 2002;Conker et al, 2003;Dehel et al, 2004;Kintner et al, 2004).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climatology of GPS signal loss observed by Swarm satellites

2018

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Abstract. By using 3-year global positioning system (GPS) measurements from December 2013 to November 2016, we provide in this study a detailed survey on the climatology of the GPS signal loss of Swarm onboard receivers. Our results show that the GPS signal losses prefer to occur at both low latitudes between ±5 and ±20 • magnetic latitude (MLAT) and high latitudes above 60 • MLAT in both hemispheres. These events at all latitudes are observed mainly during equinoxes and December solstice months, while totally absent during June solstice months. At low latitudes the GPS signal losses are caused by the equatorial plasma irregularities shortly after sunset, and at high latitude they are also highly related to the large density gradients associated with ionospheric irregularities. Additionally, the highlatitude events are more often observed in the Southern Hemisphere, occurring mainly at the cusp region and along nightside auroral latitudes. The signal losses mainly happen for those GPS rays with elevation angles less than 20 • , and more commonly occur when the line of sight between GPS and Swarm satellites is aligned with the shell structure of plasma irregularities. Our results also confirm that the capability of the Swarm receiver has been improved after the bandwidth of the phase-locked loop (PLL) widened, but the updates cannot radically avoid the interruption in tracking GPS satellites caused by the ionospheric plasma irregularities. Additionally, after the PLL bandwidth increased larger than 0.5 Hz, some unexpected signal losses are observed even at middle latitudes, which are not related to the ionospheric plasma irregularities. Our results suggest that rather than 1.0 Hz, a PLL bandwidth of 0.5 Hz is a more suitable value for the Swarm receiver.

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“…It is well known that ionospheric irregularities can affect the propagation of trans-ionospheric radio wave signals by causing fluctuations in its amplitude and phase, called scintillations (Yeh & Liu 1982;Kintner et al 2007). In the case of the Global Positioning System (GPS), scintillations may reduce the accuracy of the pseudo-range and carrier phase measurements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

GPS scintillation effects associated with polar cap patches and substorm auroral activity: direct comparison

Jin

Moen

Miloch

2014

J. Space Weather Space Clim.

104

136

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We directly compare the relative GPS scintillation levels associated with regions of enhanced plasma irregularities called auroral arcs, polar cap patches, and auroral blobs that frequently occur in the polar ionosphere. On January 13, 2013 from Ny-Å lesund, several polar cap patches were observed to exit the polar cap into the auroral oval, and were then termed auroral blobs. This gave us an unprecedented opportunity to compare the relative scintillation levels associated with these three phenomena. The blobs were associated with the strongest phase scintillation (r / ), followed by patches and arcs, with r / up to 0.6, 0.5, and 0.1 rad, respectively. Our observations indicate that most patches in the nightside polar cap have produced significant scintillations, but not all of them. Since the blobs are formed after patches merged into auroral regions, in space weather predictions of GPS scintillations, it will be important to enable predictions of patches exiting the polar cap.

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GPS and ionospheric scintillations

Cited by 585 publications

References 64 publications

L-band scintillations and calibrated total electron content gradients over Brazil during the last solar maximum

L-band scintillations and calibrated total electron content gradients over Brazil during the last solar maximum

Climatology of GPS signal loss observed by Swarm satellites

GPS scintillation effects associated with polar cap patches and substorm auroral activity: direct comparison

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