Projects per year
Abstract
The ionised upper portion of the atmosphere, the ionosphere, affects radio signals travelling between satellites and the ground. This degrades the performance of satellite navigation, surveillance and communication systems. Techniques to measure and mitigate ionospheric effects and in particular to measure the total electron content, the TEC, are therefore required. TEC is usually determined by analysing the differential delay experienced by dual‐frequency signals. Here, we demonstrate a technique which enables TEC to be derived using single frequency signals passing between geostationary satellites and terrestrial Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. Geostationary satellites offer the key advantage that the ray‐paths are not moving and hence are easier to interpret than standard GPS TEC. Daily TEC time series are derived for three ground receivers from Europe over the year 2015. The technique is validated by correlation analysis both between pairs of ground receiver observations and between ground receivers and independent ionosonde observations. The correlation between pairs of receivers over a year shows good agreement. Good agreement was also seen between the TEC time series and ionosonde data, suggesting the technique is reliable and routinely produces realistic ionospheric information. The technique is not suitable for use on every GPS receiver type because drift in derived TEC values was observed for profiles calculated using receivers without links to highly stable clocks. The demonstrated technique has the potential to become a routine method to derive TEC, helping to map the ionosphere in real time and to mitigate ionospheric effects on radio systems.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 10-19 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Radio Science |
Volume | 54 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 9 Jan 2019 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 16 Feb 2019 |
Keywords
- GPS
- TEC
- ionosphere
- single frequency
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Condensed Matter Physics
- General Earth and Planetary Sciences
- Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Measurement of ionospheric total electron content using single frequency geostationary satellite observations'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 2 Finished
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DRAGON-WEX: The Drake Passage and Southern Ocean Wave Experiment
Mitchell, N. (PI), Wright, C. (CoI) & Hindley, N. (Researcher)
Natural Environment Research Council
21/10/17 → 20/10/20
Project: Research council
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KE Fellowship - Maximising Impact from Ionospheric Research
Mitchell, C. (PI)
Natural Environment Research Council
1/09/16 → 31/08/20
Project: Research council
Profiles
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Cathryn Mitchell
- Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering - Professor
- Centre for Digital, Manufacturing & Design (dMaDe)
- Centre for Climate Adaptation & Environment Research (CAER)
- IAAPS: Propulsion and Mobility
Person: Research & Teaching, Core staff, Affiliate staff
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Corwin Wright
- Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering - Royal Society University Research Fellow
- Centre for Climate Adaptation & Environment Research (CAER) - Co-Director
- Institute of Sustainability and Climate Change
Person: Research & Teaching, Core staff, Affiliate staff