Acta Geodaetica et Cartographica Sinica ›› 2024, Vol. 53 ›› Issue (7): 1251-1264.doi: 10.11947/j.AGCS.2024.20230253

• Geodesy and Navigation •     Next Articles

Accuracy assessment of ionospheric scintillation monitoring in high-latitude regions of the northern hemisphere utilizing geodetic GNSS receivers based on ROTI and AATR

Dongsheng ZHAO1,2(), Xueli ZHANG1, Shuanglei CUI1, Qianxin WANG1, Guanqing LI1, Longjiang LI1, Chendong LI3, Kefei ZHANG1()   

  1. 1.School of Environment and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China
    2.National Space Science Data Center, Beijing 101407, China
    3.Zhejiang Normal University, Jinhua 321004, China
  • Received:2023-06-26 Published:2024-08-12
  • Contact: Kefei ZHANG E-mail:dszhao@cumt.edu.cn;profkzhang@cumt.edu.cn
  • About author:ZHAO Dongsheng (1992—), male, PhD, associate professor, majors in ionospheric scintillation monitoring and forecasting, GNSS positioning, GNSS remote sensing. E-mail: dszhao@cumt.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    The National Natural Science Foundation of China(42204016);The China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(2023M743762);The Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province(BK20200664);The State Key Laboratory of Geo-Information Engineering(SKLGIE2021-M-2-1);The Key Laboratory of Polar Environment Monitoring and Public Governance (Wuhan University), Ministry of Education(202305);The Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment and Geodesy (Wuhan University), Ministry of Education(20-01-09);The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(2020CXNL08);The National Space Science Data Center(NSSDC2302003);The Construction Program of Space-Air-Ground-Well Cooperative Awareness Spatial Information Project(B20046);The Independent Innovation Project of “Double-First Class” Construction(2022ZZCX06);2022 Jiangsu Provincial Science and Technology Initiative-Special Fund for International Science and Technology Cooperation(BZ2022018)

RichHTML

PDF

Abstract:

Currently, the 25th solar cycle has entered a period of high activity that can trigger numerous ionospheric irregularities, which in turn lead to ionospheric scintillation on the signals of GNSS. This has become a significant source of interference affecting the stable positioning navigation and timing services of GNSS. It is crucial to conduct extensive and comprehensive monitoring of global ionospheric scintillation to mitigate its adverse effect on GNSS. However, the limited distribution of traditional ionospheric scintillation monitoring receivers (ISMR) cannot meet the requirement of global scintillation monitoring. Geodetic receivers are widely deployed, but the reliability of their scintillation monitoring is questionable due to the lack of validation with long-term and low-sampling data from the new solar cycle. To address this issue, this study compares the accuracy of two ionospheric scintillation indices, i.e. Rate of total electron content change index (ROTI) and along arc total electron content rate index (AATR) in monitoring ionospheric scintillation in the high-latitude Arctic region, based on geodetic receiver data from the past three years and the scintillation factors provided by ISMR as a reference. The study assesses their performance in terms of the following aspects, e.g. the scintillation response to representative space weather events, daily scintillation occurrence rates, probability distribution of scintillation duration, daily occurrence patterns of scintillation, and characteristic variations with polar day, polar night, and geomagnetic indices. Additionally, empirical thresholds for ROTI and AATR are provided to determine the occurrence of scintillation in high-latitude regions. The results indicate that both ROTI and AATR can accurately detect regional ionospheric scintillation driven by geomagnetic disturbances and solar activity. They effectively characterize the daily variations in ionospheric scintillation statistically. However, these two scintillation indices cannot accurately differentiate between scintillation and changes in ionospheric electron density gradients, leading to higher false alarms during periods of drastic changes in electron density gradients. The findings of this study provide guidance for accurately selecting ionospheric scintillation monitoring factors in specific regions.

Key words: GNSS, ionospheric scintillation, phase scintillation index, geodetic receiver

CLC Number: