Performance of 6 Different Global Navigation Satellite System Receivers at Low Latitude Under Moderate and Strong Scintillation

Abstract

After sunset, in the equatorial regions ionospheric plasma irregularities are generated due to the generalized Rayleigh‐Taylor instability. Under favorable conditions these irregularities develop in the equatorial region while mapping along the magnetic field lines giving rise to large plasma depletion structures called Equatorial Plasma Bubbles with embedded smaller structures on their walls. The global navigation satellite system (GNSS) L1 band frequency is sensitive to irregularities of the size of 300–400 m in the first Fresnel zone, which cause scattering and diffraction of the signal and produce amplitude and/or phase scintillation. Severe scintillation of GNSS signals can in turn cause loss of lock of the receiver code and/or carrier loops. As a result, GNSS navigation and positioning solution can be adversely affected by the ionospheric scintillation. There are multiple GNSS receivers designed to monitor scintillations. These receivers are based on different hardware designs and use different methodologies to process the raw data. When using simultaneous data from different GNSS scintillation monitors it is important to evaluate and compare their performances under similar scintillation conditions. The scintillation monitoring techniques may be useful for many applications that use GNSS signal. The aim of this work is to evaluate the performance of six different GNSS receivers located at São José dos Campos (23.1°S, 45.8°W, dip latitude 17.3°S) during moderate and strong scintillation activity. The amplitude (S4) and phase (σϕ) scintillation indexes from these receivers were analyzed and compared for the nights February 20–21 and November 27–28, 2013.

The GNSS NavAer INCT Project Overview and Main Results

“…This section reports on the advances achieved in the framework of the INCT project, with respect to: (1) receiver performance verification; and (2) the application of statistical signal processing techniques to reduce scintillation effects on the receiver performance. A comparative analysis involving six different GNSS receiver models commonly used by the scientific community to study ionospheric irregularities was performed by de Paula et al (2020). Using field data from two nights, this research demonstrated that different receiver models, with different hardware architecture and manufacturers, are able to provide similar S 4 estimates.…”

Investigation of Ionospheric Small‐Scale Plasma Structures Associated With Particle Precipitation

“…The cut‐off angle to avoid multipath effects is set to 35°. Scintillation indices and IFLC are then derived according to equations presented below (Carrano et al., 2013; de Paula et al., 2021; Yeh & Liu, 1982).…”

Challenges in real-time generation of scintillation index maps

“…These two networks can provide data from up to 44 GNSS stations simultaneously over the Brazilian territory, or up to 70 considering South America. In addition, for a given constellation, the S4 index values are compatible between GNSS stations equipped with different GNSS receivers (de Paula et al 2021).…”