Ionosonde total electron content evaluation using International Global Navigation Satellite System Service data

Autor(es)

Klipp, Telmo dos Santos ^[1] ; Petry, Adriano ^[1] ; de Souza, Jonas Rodrigues ^[2] ; de Paula, Eurico Rodrigues ^[2] ; Falcao, Gabriel Sandim ^[1] ; de Campos Velho, Haroldo Fraga ^[2]

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] Southern Reg Space Res Ctr, Natl Inst Space Res, AV Roraima, Campus UFSM, Sala 2023, POB 5021, BR-97105970 Santa Maria, RS - Brazil

^[2] Natl Inst Space Res, Av Astronautas 1758, BR-12227010 Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP - Brazil

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: Annales Geophysicae; v. 38, n. 2, p. 347-357, MAR 18 2020.
• Citações Web of Science: 5

Resumo

In this work, a period of 2 years (2016-2017) of ionospheric total electron content (ITEC) from ionosondes operating in Brazil is compared to the International GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Service (IGS) vertical total electron content (vTEC) data. Sounding instruments from the National Institute for Space Research (INPE) provided the ionograms used, which were filtered based on confidence score (CS) and C-Level flag evaluation. Differences between vTEC from IGS maps and ionosonde IBC were accumulated in terms of root mean squared error (RMSE). As expected, we noticed that the ITEC values provided by ionosondes are systematically underestimated, which is attributed to a limitation in the electron density modeling for the ionogram topside that considers a fixed scale height, which makes density values decay too rapidly above similar to 800 km, while IGS takes in account electron density from GNSS stations up to the satellite network orbits. The topside density profiles covering the plasmasphere were re-modeled using two different approaches: an optimization of the adapted alpha-Chapman exponential decay that includes a transition function between the F2 layer and plasmasphere and a corrected version of the NeQuick topside formulation. The electron density integration height was extended to 20 000 km to compute TEC. Chapman parameters for the F2 layer were extracted from each ionogram, and the plasmaspheric scale height was set to 10 000 km. A criterion to optimize the proportionality coefficient used to calculate the plasmaspheric basis density was introduced in this work. The NeQuick variable scale height was calculated using empirical parameters determined with data from Swarm satellites. The mean RMSE for the whole period using adapted alpha-Chapman optimization reached a minimum of 5.32 TECU, that is, 23 % lower than initial ITEC errors, while for the NeQuick topside formulation the error was reduced by 27 %. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 17/50115-0 - INCT 2014: tecnologia GNSS no suporte à navegação aérea
• Beneficiário: Joao Francisco Galera Monico
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Pesquisa em Políticas Públicas