TY - GEN
T1 - Analysis of ionospheric scintillation and its impact on PPP at low latitudes
AU - Guo, Kai
AU - Aquino, Marcio
AU - Veettil, Sreeja Vadakke
AU - Liu, Zhizhao
AU - Chen, Wu
AU - Marques, Haroldo Antonio
N1 - Funding Information:
K. Guo is a Marie Skłodowska-Curie research fellow at the Nottingham Geospatial Institute of the University of Nottingham in the UK, within the TREASURE project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme. He concentrates on developing novel GNSS receiver tracking models and scintillation mitigation tools, aiming to improve the receiver tracking performance under ionospheric scintillation. M. Aquino is an Associate Professor at the Nottingham Geospatial Institute of the University of Nottingham in the UK. He pioneered the deployment of ionospheric scintillation and TEC monitoring receivers in Northern Europe in 2001. His research has focused on ionospheric effects on GNSS, including system vulnerability to ionospheric disturbances and relevant countermeasures. S. Vadakke Veettil is a senior research fellow at the Nottingham Geospatial Institute of the University of Nottingham in the UK, involved in European Commission, European Space Agency and UK research council funded projects. Her research focuses on assessing the effects of space weather on GNSS receivers and positioning errors aiming to improve the modeling of scintillation and to develop scintillation mitigation tools. Z. (George) Liu currently is an Associate Professor at the Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics (LSGI), The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), Hong Kong, P. R. China. He received his BSc degree in Surveying Engineering from the Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, China, in 1994 and MSc degree in Geodesy from the Wuhan University, China, in 1997. He earned his PhD in Geomatics Engineering from the University of Calgary, Canada, in 2004. His research interests include GNSS algorithm development for precise positioning and navigation, atmospheric water vapor observation and ionosphere TEC and scintillation monitoring. W. Chen is Professor at Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics, Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Prof Chen has been actively working on GNSS related research for more than 30 years. His main research interests are GNSS positioning technologies, system integrity, various GNSS applications, seamless positioning, and SLAM. H. Antonio Marques received his BSc degree in Cartographic Engineering in 2005, MSc in Cartographic Science in 2008, and PhD in Cartographic Science in 2012 at Sao Paulo State University (UNESP), Presidente Prudente in Brazil. From 2011 until 2016, he worked as Adjunct Professor at the Department of Cartographic Engineering, Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), Recife in Brazil. Since then, he has been teaching at Military Institute of Engineering (IME), Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, where he is lecturing and researching topics related to Geodesy and Adjustment, especially those related to GNSS, surveying, and atmospheric sciences.
Funding Information:
The authors wish to thank the TREASURE project (www.treasure-gnss.eu), funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions grant agreement No. 722023. The GNSS scintillation data were collected from the Hok Tsui station, Hong Kong, which was jointly installed by Dr. Jade Morton's group at the University of Colorado, USA and Dr. George Zhizhao Liu's group at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. The GNSS scintillation receiver was provided by Dr. Jade Morton's group at the University of Colorado, USA. Authors also want to thanks to Xiangdong An from Wuhan University and Brian Weaver from Nottingham Geospatial Institute for the helpful discussion.
Publisher Copyright:
© ION 2019.All right reserved.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Ionospheric scintillation refers to the random and rapid fluctuations in the amplitude and phase of radio signals that occur due to their propagation through plasma density irregularities in the ionosphere. For Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), scintillation can seriously degrade satellite signal quality and consequently the positioning accuracy, particularly at high and low latitude regions, where ionospheric disturbances are more frequent. This study analyzes the effects of scintillation on Global Positioning System (GPS) Precise Point Positioning (PPP), by making use of scintillation data recorded in Hong Kong during the solar maximum of 2014. Significant positioning error values of as much as 1.34 m in the up direction are observed with kinematic PPP processing under strong scintillation. The variations in the standard deviations of the carrier phase residuals in relation to satellite elevations and scintillation levels are investigated for the first time in this region. It is found that the standard deviation of carrier phase residuals increases depending on scintillation intensity. This study is important to help better understand the scintillation characteristics and its effects on GPS-based positioning in the Hong Kong region. It can also help in modelling the relationship between scintillation and carrier phase residuals, which can be of use in the development of scintillation mitigation approaches for PPP processing.
AB - Ionospheric scintillation refers to the random and rapid fluctuations in the amplitude and phase of radio signals that occur due to their propagation through plasma density irregularities in the ionosphere. For Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), scintillation can seriously degrade satellite signal quality and consequently the positioning accuracy, particularly at high and low latitude regions, where ionospheric disturbances are more frequent. This study analyzes the effects of scintillation on Global Positioning System (GPS) Precise Point Positioning (PPP), by making use of scintillation data recorded in Hong Kong during the solar maximum of 2014. Significant positioning error values of as much as 1.34 m in the up direction are observed with kinematic PPP processing under strong scintillation. The variations in the standard deviations of the carrier phase residuals in relation to satellite elevations and scintillation levels are investigated for the first time in this region. It is found that the standard deviation of carrier phase residuals increases depending on scintillation intensity. This study is important to help better understand the scintillation characteristics and its effects on GPS-based positioning in the Hong Kong region. It can also help in modelling the relationship between scintillation and carrier phase residuals, which can be of use in the development of scintillation mitigation approaches for PPP processing.
KW - Carrier phase residuals
KW - GPS
KW - Ionospheric scintillation
KW - Kinematic PPP
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088559300&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.33012/2019.16842
DO - 10.33012/2019.16842
M3 - Conference article published in proceeding or book
AN - SCOPUS:85088559300
T3 - Proceedings of the Institute of Navigation Pacific Positioning, Navigation and Timing Meeting, Pacific PNT
SP - 835
EP - 845
BT - ION 2019 Pacific PNT Meeting Proceedings
PB - The Institute of Navigation
T2 - Institute of Navigation 2019 Pacific Positioning, Navigation and Timing Meeting, PACIFIC PNT 2019
Y2 - 8 April 2019 through 11 April 2019
ER -