A method for scintillation characterization using geodetic receivers operating at 1 Hz

Abstract

Ionospheric scintillation produces strong disruptive effects on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals, ranging from degrading performances to rendering these signals useless for accurate navigation. The current paper presents a novel approach to detect scintillation on the GNSS signals based on its effect on the ionospheric-free combination of carrier-phases, i.e. the standard combination of measurements used in Precise Point Positioning (PPP). The method is implemented using actual data, thereby having both its feasibility and its usefulness assessed at the same time. The results identify the main effects of scintillation, which consist of an increased level of noise in the ionosphericfree combination of measurements and the introduction of cycle-slips into the signals. Also discussed is how misdetected cycle-slips contaminate the Rate Of change of the TEC Index (ROTI) values, which is especially important for low-latitude receivers. By considering the effect of single jumps in the individual frequencies, the

Feasibility of precise navigation in high and low latitude regions under scintillation conditions

“…The geodetic detrending was introduced in Juan et al (2017) and basically consists on a precise modelling of the different effects on the GNSS signals (except the ionospheric ones). Indeed, thanks to the IGS one can have access to different products (specifically satellite orbits, clocks and receiver zenith tropospheric delays) with an accuracy of few centimetres.…”

“…In order to avoid receiver clock instabilities that could be interpreted as ionospheric scintillation (Humphreys et al, 2005), ISMRs are equipped with a very stable oscillator. But, more recently, in Juan et al (2017), it has been proposed a new method that allows the detrending using conventional GNSS receivers without requiring a very stable receiver clock (i.e. an atomic clock).…”

“…Moreover, the characteristics of scintillation are also different in those two regions (e.g. Béniguel et al, 2009;Juan et al, 2017): in high-latitude regions, phase scintillation predominates being the amplitude scintillation usually moderate, therefore carrier phase cycle slips are not frequent. In low latitude regions not only phase scintillation but also amplitude scintillation is important and the GNSS signals can experience frequent cycle slips.…”

“…it cannot be considered as strong scintillation. More recently, Juan et al (2017) analysed the GNSS data collected under scintillation conditions by four receivers placed in high and low latitude regions (GMLATs around À78, À12, À11 and 69°), during February 27th in 2014, i.e. a day close to the equinox in the last solar maximum and when a geomagnetic storm occurred (DST ∼ À100 nT) affecting the high latitude observations.…”

“…In the present work we apply the geodetic detrending presented in Juan et al (2017) in order to show the feasibility of achieving precise positioning under scintillation conditions in high and low latitude regions. In Section 2, we describe the data that we use for obtaining the results of this work.…”