Acta Geodaetica et Cartographica Sinica ›› 2026, Vol. 55 ›› Issue (1): 10-24.

• Geodesy and Navigation • Previous Articles    

Validation of TEC data from the ionospheric photometer

Wei LI1,2(), Xiangyi HE1, Ling YANG1(), Yunri FU1, Liping FU3,4,5   

  1. 1.College of Surveying and Geo-informatics, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
    2.Shanghai Xiaoyuan Innovation Center, Shanghai 201815, China
    3.National Space Science Center, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
    4.Beijing Key Laboratory of Space-based Space Environment Detection, Beijing 100190, China
    5.Key Laboratory of Space Environment Situation Awareness Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
  • Received:2025-07-03 Revised:2026-01-01 Published:2026-02-13
  • Contact: Ling YANG E-mail:13681868995@139.com;lingyang@tongji.edu.cn
  • About author:LI Wei (1982—), male, PhD, researcher, majors in spatial situational awareness. E-mail: 13681868995@139.com
  • Supported by:
    The National Natural Science Foundation of China(42274030)

Abstract:

The ionospheric photometer (IPM) carried on Fengyun-3D satellite is China's first space-based payload with the ability to detect the ionosphere in the far ultraviolet band. It is urgent to conduct in-depth accuracy verification and quality evaluation of the total electron content (TEC) data obtained from its inversion at night. This study focuses on the availability of China's first ionospheric photometer TEC (IPM-TEC). Using the global ionospheric map (GIM) (GIM-TEC) and TEC data inverted based on Continuous Operational Reference System (CORS-TEC) in Europe and China as references, a two-year quantitative evaluation and comparative analysis of IPM-TEC was conducted at both global and regional scales by calculating system bias and data noise. The experimental results show that on a global scale, during the ionospheric calm period, IPM-TEC and GIM-TEC exhibit high consistency in the mid to low latitude region (within 40°N/S), with an overall system deviation of less than 2 TECU (total electron content unit) and data noise of less than 0.3 TECU, indicating good availability of data in this region; at the regional scale, the systematic deviation between Europe and China in the mid low latitude region during the calm period is controlled within 2 TECU, further verifying the high validity of IPM data in the mid low latitude region. Overall, the research results indicate that China's first Ionospheric Photometer has high data availability during ionospheric calm periods and in mid to low latitude regions, providing important technical references for subsequent multi-source fusion modeling and error correction of the ionosphere based on the ionospheric photometer observation data.

Key words: ionospheric photometer, total electronic content, global consistency, regional differences

CLC Number: