Modeling the Effects of Ionospheric Scintillation on GPS Carrier Phase Tracking

Humphreys, Todd E.; Psiaki, Mark L.; Kintner, P. M.

doi:10.1109/taes.2010.5595583

Cited by 140 publications

(138 citation statements)

References 13 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

128

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This agrees with the results from Juan et al (2017) where the carrier phase jumps were associated to the amplitude scintillation, i.e. canonical amplitude fades (Humphreys et al, 2010), which is characteristic in low latitude scintillation. This reduction in the number of satellites with useful observations, i.e.…”

Section: Results On Navigationsupporting

confidence: 91%

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

Zornoza

Sanz

González-Casado

et al. 2018

J. Space Weather Space Clim.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

-Scintillation is one of the most challenging problems in Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) navigation. This phenomenon appears when the radio signal passes through ionospheric irregularities. These irregularities represent rapid changes on the refraction index and, depending on their size, they can produce also diffractive effects affecting the signal amplitude and, eventually producing cycle slips. In this work, we show that the scintillation effects on the GNSS signal are quite different in low and high latitudes. For low latitude receivers, the main effects, from the point of view of precise navigation, are the increase of the carrier phase noise (measured by s f ) and the fade on the signal intensity (measured by S4) that can produce cycle slips in the GNSS signal. With several examples, we show that the detection of these cycle slips is the most challenging problem for precise navigation, in such a way that, if these cycle slips are detected, precise navigation can be achieved in these regions under scintillation conditions. For high-latitude receivers the situation differs. In this region the size of the irregularities is typically larger than the Fresnel length, so the main effects are related with the fast change on the refractive index associated to the fast movement of the irregularities (which can reach velocities up to several km/s). Consequently, the main effect on the GNSS signals is a fast fluctuation of the carrier phase (large s f ), but with a moderate fade in the amplitude (moderate S4). Therefore, as shown through several examples, fluctuations at high-latitude usually do not produce cycle slips, being the effect quite limited on the ionosphere-free combination and, in general, precise navigation can be achieved also during strong scintillation conditions.

show abstract

Section: Results On Navigationsupporting

confidence: 91%

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

Zornoza

Sanz

González-Casado

et al. 2018

J. Space Weather Space Clim.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Another parameter, which has become of interest in recent studies (Humphreys et al, 2010;Carrano and Groves, 2010), is the decorrelation time τ 0 . This parameter provides temporal information about scintillation and may be interpreted as the indicator of the fading rate, defined as the time lag at which the autocorrelation function (A r ) of amplitude scintillation falls off by exp(−1) from its maximum (zero lag) value.…”

Section: Ionospheric Fading Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2 of the work of Oliveira et al (2014). Additionally to the fading rate, the τ 0 parameter may be used to characterize the turbulent ionospheric medium (Carrano et al, 2012) and to predict GPS receiver cycle slipping rates (Humphreys et al, 2010). For example, in Moraes et al (2011), the typical values of probability of cycle slip for GPS users at low latitudes under amplitude scintillation conditions were up to 35 %.…”

Section: Ionospheric Fading Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climatology and modeling of ionospheric scintillations and irregularity zonal drifts at the equatorial anomaly crest region

et al. 2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. In this study the climatology of ionospheric scintillations and the zonal drift velocities of scintillationproducing irregularities are depicted for a station located under the southern crest of the equatorial ionization anomaly. Then, the α−µ ionospheric fading model is used for the firstand second-order statistical characterization of amplitude scintillations. In the statistical analyzes, data are used from single-frequency GPS receivers acquired during ∼ 17 years (September 1997-November 2014 at Cachoeira Paulista (22.4 • S; 45.0 • W), Brazil. The results reveal that the nocturnal occurrence of scintillations follows the seasonal distribution of plasma bubble irregularities observed in the longitudinal sector of eastern South America. In addition to the solar cycle dependence, the results suggest that the occurrence climatology of scintillations is also modulated by the secular variation in the dip latitude of Cachoeira Paulista, since the maximum occurrence of scintillations during the peak of solar cycle 24 was ∼ 20 % lower than that observed during the maximum of solar cycle 23. The dynamics of the irregularities throughout a solar cycle, as investigated from the estimates of the mean zonal drift velocities, presented a good correlation with the EUV and F10.7 cm solar fluxes. Meanwhile, the seasonal behavior showed that the magnitude of the zonal drift velocities is larger during the December solstice months than during the equinoxes. In terms of modeling, the results for the α − µ distribution fit quite well with the experimental data and with the temporal characteristics of fading events independently of the solar activity level.

show abstract

“…According to Humphreys et al [2010], this parameter is also important because the signal tracking is particularly difficult in such cases. A detailed characterization of τ 0 and its likely impacts on the receiver performance can be found in Carrano and Groves [2010] and Moraes et al [2011].…”

Section: Interpretation Of Fading Coefficientsmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the second order statistics for GPS ionospheric scintillation modeling

et al. 2014

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Equatorial ionospheric scintillation is a phenomenon that occurs frequently, typically during nighttime, affecting radio signals that propagate through the ionosphere. Depending on the temporal and spatial distribution, ionospheric scintillation can represent a problem in the availability and precision for the Global Navigation Satellite System's users. This work is concerned with the statistical evaluation of the amplitude ionospheric scintillation fading events, namely, level crossing rate (LCR) and average fading duration (AFD). Using α-μ model, the LCR and AFD are validated against experimental data obtained in São José dos Campos (23.1°S; 45.8°W; dip latitude 17.3°S), Brazil, a station located near the southern crest of the ionospheric equatorial ionization anomaly. The amplitude scintillation data were collected between December 2001 and January 2002, a period of high solar flux conditions. The obtained results with the proposed model fitted quite well with the experimental data and performed better when compared to the widely used Nakagami-m model. Additionally, this work discusses the estimation of α and μ parameters, and the best fading coefficients found in this analysis are related to scintillation severity. Finally, for theoretical situations in which no set of experimental data are available, this work also presents parameterized equations to describe these fading statistics properly.

show abstract

Modeling the Effects of Ionospheric Scintillation on GPS Carrier Phase Tracking

Cited by 140 publications

References 13 publications

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

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

Climatology and modeling of ionospheric scintillations and irregularity zonal drifts at the equatorial anomaly crest region

On the second order statistics for GPS ionospheric scintillation modeling

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About