Performance analysis of a 3D ionosphere tomographic model

A 3D high precision ionospheric model is developed based on tomography technique. This tomographic model employs GPS data observed by an operational network of dual-frequency GPS receivers. The methodology of developing a 3D ionospheric tomography model is briefly summarized. However emphasis is put on the analysis and evaluation of the accuracy variation of 3D ionosphere modeling with respect to the change of GPS data cutoff angle.Three typical cutoff angle values (15°, 20° and 25°) are tested. For each testing cutoff angle, the performances of the3D ionospheric model constructed using tomography technique are assessed by calibrating the model predicted ionospheric TEC with the GPS measured TEC and by employing the model predicted TEC to a practical GPS positioning application single point positioning (SPP).Test results indicate the 3D model predicted VTEC has about 0.4 TECU improvement in accuracy when cutoff angle rises from 15° to 20°. However, no apparent improvement is found from 20° to 25°. The model's improvement is also validated by the better SPP accuracy of 3D model than its counterpart-dual frequency model in the 20° and 25° cases.     

Storm-time ionospheric disturbances monitored by GPS beacon measurements

The Total Electron Content (TEC) during three great storms, from April to August 2000, was collected by means of a GPS receiver located in Jingzhou (30.4° N, 112.2° E). The time-latitude-dependent features of ionospheric storms are identified using TEC difference images based on the deviations of TEC during storm relative to quiet time. The responses of ionospheric TEC to magnetic storms were analyzed. The results show that: 1) In middle and low latitude, ionospheric storms effects are more apparent in local day time than at night: 2) Ionospheric storm effects are more dominant near the hump of the equatorial anomaly region than in other regions of TEC measurements; 3) The positive effects during the main phase of ionospheric storm may be caused by electric fields in low latitude; 4) During the recovery period of ionospheric storm, the negative phase of storm may be due to the perturbation of the neutral gas composition. Foundation item: Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (49984001) Biography: Pei Xiao-hong (1977-), male, Master candidate, research direction: studying ionosphere on GPS beacons.     

玉树Mw7．1地震前电离层异常扰动初步分析

为了研究地震电离层效应,采用CODE提供的全球电离层地图（GIM）数据分析了2010年4月14日玉树7．1级地震．通过插值提取了震中区域震前的TEC时间序列,利用滑动四分位距法排除太阳（SSN、F10．7）和地磁活动（Dst、Kp）的干扰,发现电离层在震前26天和13天存在明显异常．全球电离层异常分布结果显示,震前26天的电离层异常幅度小于震前13天的异常幅度,这可能与临震时间有关．此外,两次异常的峰值点与震中区域并不严格对应,而是靠近震中偏向赤道的一侧,同时磁共轭区也有异常出现,但范围和幅度较小,这两次电离层异常有可能是地震前兆．     

Correlative ionospheric disturbances in the sunlit hemisphere during the flare on July 14, 2000

Using GPS data obtained from GPS sites located on the sunlit hemisphere during the flare on July 14, 2000, the ionospheric response to the flare was analyzed. A kind of tiny correlative ionospheric fluctuations were revealed from the temporal total electron content (TEC) curves derived from GPS measurements, and the values of this kind of disturbances are about 1015 m-2. A comparative analysis of these disturbances and soft X-ray flux detected at GOES satellite during the flare is done. It is found that this kind of disturbances revealed in the temporal TEC curves did occur in a very large area of sunlit ionosphere and its behavior is mainly controlled by the characteristics of the flare's extra radiation. Because the similar fluctuations are not found in the curve of soft X-ray flux, it is concluded that the flare extra radiation in EUV band should have corresponding fluctuations and it is the fluctuations that cause the TEC disturbances. The height, where the disturbances occur, should be in the F region.     

利用单站电离层测高仪与GPS数据的同化反演试验

利用测高仪和GPS观测数据进行了单站电离层电子密度廓线的同化反演实验,实验中设计了一套基于Kalman滤波的电离层数据同化系统,采用了水平和垂直方向可分离的高斯型误差协方差矩阵,利用IRI2000模式作为同化反演的背景场,分别使用了测高仪数据和GPS数据进行了单独同化反演和联合同化反演实验,结果显示：在各类同化参数不改变的情况下,单独利用GPS数据反演结果较好,不仅可以得到较为准确的TEC,电子密度廓线结果也有较好的提升;单独使用测高仪反演的结果较差,在峰高以下电子密度廓线和观测较一致,但峰高以上电子密度廓线和观测比较的结果较差,并且TEC结果和观测也有一定误差;而利用GPS和测高仪数据联合反演的结果最好,无论是反演的电子密度廓线还是TEC值都和观测最为接近.     

利用GPS观测值反演电离层总电子含量的时空变化

为了便于电离层总电子含量时空变化的研究,利用区域电离层模型获得了GPS系统硬件延迟,从而进一步获取了绝对电离层总电子含量值.利用北京IGS站的GPS观测数据分别计算了2000年至2004年各个不同季节的总电子含量,经比较发现,电离层总电子含量表现出明显的季节性变化.利用中国地壳观测网络25个测站的观测数据计算发现,电离层总电子含量空间变化幅度大,在低纬度地区总电子含量值相对较大,而在中纬度地区相对较小.     

Ionospheric eclipse factor method (IEFM) for determining the ionospheric delay using GPS data

By establishing the ionospheric eclipse factor (IEF) λ of the ionospheric pierce point (IPP) and its ionospheric influence factor (IFF) λ, and combining λ, λ with t of IPP, a new method of modeling high-precision ionospheric delay using GPS data-ionospheric eclipse factor method (IEFM)-is presented in this paper. The IEFM can effectively select the proper ionospheric models to model the total electron content (TEC) with different changes corresponding to annual, seasonal and diurnal variations. Initial experimental results show that the correction precision of ionospheric delay modeled by the IEFM seems to be close to that of using L3 GPS observations to directly correct the corresponding ionospheric delay.     

基于单站GPS数据的GPS系统硬件延迟估算方法及结果比较

从GPS数据中解算电离层TEC的最大误差源是硬件延迟。作者介绍了两种解算电离层TEC和硬件延迟的方法。利用单站的GPS双频数据,计算了2004年电离层TEC和硬件延迟,对两种方法得到的硬件延迟进行了比较,并且和欧洲定轨中心的公布结果进行了对比,同时分析了不同纬度台站数据解算硬件延迟的误差特点。结果表明:这两种方法均可以解算TEC和硬件延迟,结果是可靠的。解算的硬件延迟的标准偏差与观测站的纬度有关,在中国区域,纬度越低,估算的硬件延迟偏差越大,对这一情况进行了分析。     

基于单站GPS数据的GPS系统硬件延迟估算方法及结果比较

从GPS数据中解算电离层总电子含量(TEC)的最大误差源是硬件延迟。作者介绍了两种解算电离层TEC和硬件延迟的方法。利用单站的GPS双频数据,计算了2004年电离层TEC和硬件延迟,对两种方法得到的硬件延迟进行了比较,并且和欧洲定轨中心的公布结果进行了对比,同时分析了不同纬度台站数据解算硬件延迟的误差特点。结果表明：这两种方法均可以解算TEC和硬件延迟,结果是可靠的。解算的硬件延迟的标准偏差与观测站的纬度有关,在中国区域,纬度越低,估算的硬件延迟偏差越大,对这一情况进行了分析。     

美国加利福尼亚州M 6.0地震前电离层TEC异常分析

 针对2014 年8 月24 日世界时10:20 发生在美国加利福尼亚州地区(38.21°,-122.32°)的M 6.0 地震,利用美国地区全球定位系统(GPS)双频观测台网和欧洲定轨中心(CODE)绘制的全球电离层地图(GIM),分析震前上空电离层电子浓度总含量(TEC)的时间和空间变化。结果表明,震前2 d 震中附近区域TEC 相对于前25 d,TEC 下边界限出现明显负异常;通过对全球范围电离层TEC 变化的空间分析,震前2 d 震中附近区域异常减小的时间持续约40 h,且TEC 减小幅度和相对变化较为明显。此次地震前电离层TEC 异常减少,与以往亚洲地区地震的统计分析结果较为一致,但对北美地区地震空间前兆规律还有待于积累更多资料及分析。     

Sunlit boundary ionospheric response to the great flare on Oct. 28, 2003

The sudden increase in X-ray and EUV flux duringthe outburst of a large flare greatly elevate the electrondensity of the ionosphere, causing sudden ionosphericdisturbances (SIDs), such as sudden wave fadeout (SFD),sudden phase anomaly (SPA), sudden frequency deviation(SFD) and sudden increase in total electron content(SITEC)[1—4]. Two review articles addressed SIDs in detailrecently[5,6]. Due to the limitation of observing methods,the global ionospheric morphology during solar flares…     

利用GPS方法对1998-11-22太阳耀斑引起的电离层TEC变化的观测研究

利用GPS伪距+载波相位联合数据处理方法具体分析了1998-11-22耀斑爆发期间北京、上海、武汉、西安GPS观测数据得到的电离层TEC。此次耀斑爆发引起了设在北京的高频多普勒长达15min左右的无线电短波中断。通过对GPS得到的电离层TEC进行分析发现： 此次耀斑造成了大面积的电离层TEC的增加,耀斑爆发引起的最大TEC增幅在1.25个TEC单位左右;利用高精度的GPS数据处理方法可研究耀斑引起的电离层扰动。另外,还分析了由GPS计算的TEC的时空变化特点。     

Study of the ionospheric anomaly before the Wenchuan earthquake

The behavior of the ionosphere before the Wenchuan earthquake is analyzed with the global TEC and ionospheric foF2 observed at Xiamen. It can be found from TEC maps that in the afternoon (16―18LT) on May 9, 2008, 3 days before the earthquake, there is an enhancement of TEC with an amplitude of 10―15 TECU appearing in the east-south direction of Wenchuan, and another enhancement appears at the conjugate region of the Southern Hemisphere with an amplitude of 10 TECU, but no obvious in-crement or decrement can be seen in other regions on global scale. It can also be found that on May 6 (6 days before the great earthquake), there is a decrement of TEC with small amplitude of 4TECU and larger area with 80° along the longitude in southern China, and there is no synchronous decrement observed at the conjugate region of the Southern Hemisphere. There are also many anomalies ob-served by ionosondes across China. The result shows that foF2 and TEC abnormally increased, which is different from pervious results that ionospheric parameters decreased prior to earthquakes. Pre-liminary results suggest that the enhancement on May 9 maybe has a close relationship with the pos-sible enhancement of ionospheric electric fields, and it may be an ionospheric precursor of earth-quakes. Whereas the decrement on May 6 may be attributed to the geomagnetic disturbance appearing on May 5.     

Study of the ionospheric TEC using GPS during the large solar flare burst on Nov. 6, 1997

Using the data from 15 global positioning system (GPS) stations scattered between 28° N—45° N and 90° W—77° E we obtained the total electron content (TEC) variations with time during a large solar flare. The results indicated that the flare makes the TEC of ionosphere increasing in a large spatial area. The amounts of the TEC enhancement are mainly determined by the local time of subionospheric point, and the largest TEC enhancement is about 2.5 TECU. It is also concluded that the TEC enhancement is not symmetrical about the local noon time, the TEC enhancement values during morning hours are larger than those of the afternoon hours.     

Development of an ionospheric scintillation monitor using single frequency GPS receiver

Besides their intended use in radio navigation, global positioning system (GPS) satellite signals provide convenient radio beacons for ionospheric studies. Among other propagation phenomena, the ionosphere affects GPS signal propagation through amplitude scintillations that develop after radio waves propagation through ionospheric electron density irregularities. This paper outlines the design, testing, and results of a specialized GPS receiver to monitorL-band scintillations. The scintillation monitor system consists of a commercial GPS receiver development kit with its software designed to log signal strength and carrier phase from up to 12 channels at one sample per second rate. Other prime features of the monitor include the data compression transmission and processing. Here is the fact that they are inexpensive and compact and therefore can be readily proliferated. Foundation item: Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 49984001) Biography: Shu Di-fei (1973-), male, Master candidate, research direction: studying ionosphere on GPS beacons.     

A generalized trigonometric series function model for determining ionospheric delay

A generalized trigonometric series function (GTSF) model, with an adjustable number of parameters, is proposed and analyzed to study ionosphere by using GPS, especially to provide ionospheric delay correction for single frequency GPS users. The preliminary results show that, in comparison with the trigonometric series function (TSF) model and the polynomial (POLY) model, the GTSF model can more precisely describe the ionospheric variation and more efficiently provide the ionospheric correction when GPS data are used to investigate or extract the earth's ionospheric total electron content. It is also shown that the GTSF model can further improve the precision and accuracy of modeling local ionospheric delays.     

基于全球卫星导航系统观测网的全球总电子含量快速反演方法

将全球按照地理经纬度进行网格划分,每网格选取一个接收机,基于全球卫星导航系统(GNSS)观测网的全球定位系统(GPS)双频观测数据,在电离层薄层假设条件下,提出了一种基于球谐函数拟合的高时间分辨率总电子含量(TEC)快速反演方法.利用2006年四季中16个地磁平静日的GPS双频观测数据,针对15种不同的网格选站情况考察其TEC的反演效果与解算时间.结果表明,当网格选站间隔小于15°×30°(纬度×经度)时,数据拟合度约为2TECU,并都能较好地反演TEC.综合考虑穿刺点分布与解算时间,在10°×20°(纬度×经度)选站条件下,约在3min内即可反演出有效的TEC、卫星硬件偏差和接收机硬件偏差,从而提高了反演速度,10°×20°(纬度×经度)选站的快速反演TEC能够为全球电离层TEC现报提供一种有效方法.     

Model analysis method (MAM) on the effect of the second-order ionospheric delay on GPS positioning solution

In this paper,we develop an approach to study the effect of second-order ionospheric delay on GPS positioning based on the ionosphere-free combination (abbreviated to Lc) of GPS dual-frequency carrier phase observables,in which the first-order ionospheric delay has been eliminated.GPS data from IGS WUHN tracking station during April 9 23,2003 is used to perform the above approach,and results show that the second-order ionospheric delay in GPS so-called ionosphere-free observables will result in the regular ...     

The estimation method of GPS instrumental biases

A model of estimating the global positioning system (GPS) instrumental biases and the methods to calculate the relative instrumental biases of satellite and receiver are presented. The calculated results of GPS instrumental biases, the relative instrumental biases of satellite and receiver, and total electron content (TEC) are also shown. Finally, the stability of GPS instrumental biases as well as that of satellite and receiver instrumental biases are evaluated, indicating that they are very stable during a period of two months and a half.     

Climatological analysis and modeling of the ionospheric global electron content

In this paper, we calculate the ionospheric global electron content （GEC） from the GPS TEC data along the geographic longitude 120°E during the period of 1996-2004, and investigate the relationship between GEC and 10.7 cm solar radio flux F10.7 and its seasonal dependence with partial correlation analysis. Our results show that GEC is closely correlated with solar activity index F10.7 and is also related with annual and semiannual variations. An empirical GEC model driven by those factors is then to examine the influences of different solar activity proxies for the model input. The results suggest that GEC mainly depends on solar activity and the seasonal variations; the latter is also modulated by solar activity. Furthermore, the magnitude of semiannual variation is a little greater than that of annual variation. Our empirical GEC model is proved to be better than the model proposed by Afraimovich et al.