Strong scintillation of GNSS signals in the inhomogeneous ionosphere: 2. Simulator of transionospheric channel

Abstract

The physics-based software simulator of the Global Navigation Satellite System signals on the transionospheric paths of propagation is presented, which provides the possibility for generating the field amplitude and phase random time series in the conditions of strong scintillations, including the case when it is formed inside the inhomogeneous ionospheric layer, which is the result of multiple scattering by the local random inhomogeneities of the electron density embedded in the inhomogeneous extended medium.

A theory of scintillation for two‐component power law irregularity spectra: Overview and numerical results

“…In his book, Rino [] reviewed the parabolic moment equations and discussed the strong scatter behavior of inverse power law phase screen models. In a pair of recent papers, Zernov and Gherm [] and Gherm and Zernov [] extended the parabolic moment equations to describe strong scintillations of the wavefield propagating within an inhomogeneous random medium.…”

Strong scintillation of GNSS signals in the inhomogeneous ionosphere: 1. Theoretical background

“…In particular, obtaining the scintillation index S 4 (equation ) and the mean field (equation ) according to the technique presented will enable specifying the PDF for the field amplitude fluctuations, and the solution ( and ) for the first second‐order coherence and correlation functions together with the chosen PDFs will enable the generation of properly correlated random time series of the field. The details of building the software simulator of the signals on transionospheric paths of propagation will be discussed in the companion paper [ Gherm and Zernov , ]. This simulator will then be able to generate the field amplitude and phase random time series including the case when the regime of strong scintillation already occurs in the inhomogeneous ionospheric layer.…”

“…This was treated in terms of Markov's parabolic equations for the mean field, two second‐order coherence functions and scintillation index S 4 . All these, as has already be mentioned, will be further utilized in the companion paper by Gherm and Zernov [] in order to build the computer simulator of the stochastic transionospheric signals, which occur when the regime of strong scintillation is formed in the inhomogeneous ionospheric layer. In particular, obtaining the scintillation index S 4 (equation ) and the mean field (equation ) according to the technique presented will enable specifying the PDF for the field amplitude fluctuations, and the solution ( and ) for the first second‐order coherence and correlation functions together with the chosen PDFs will enable the generation of properly correlated random time series of the field.…”

“…To complete section , the theoretical results to be obtained and outlined below will form the physical background for constructing the software simulator of the random transionospheric GNSS signals in the case when the regime of strong amplitude scintillation may be formed when propagating in the inhomogeneous ionospheric layer. The simulator will be discussed in detail in the companion paper by Gherm and Zernov [].…”

Multiple phase screen calculation of two‐way spherical wave propagation in the ionosphere

“…In related works Gherm et al [], Zernov et al [], Gherm and Zernov [], and Zernov and Gherm [] compute realizations of signals after 3‐D spherical wave propagation using Markov's assumption and the Rytov approximation to analytically calculate the second and fourth moments of the field and the correlation of the real and imaginary parts of the propagating signal. The Markov assumption is a requirement for the analytic solution for the moments of the field governed by the parabolic wave equation [ Fante , ], but not for the numerical MPS solution.…”