Simulation of GPS Scintillation and TEC Using Rocket Borne Ionospheric Density Measurements

Details Simulation of GPS Scintillation and TEC Using Rocket Borne Ionospheric Density Measurements Simulation of GPS Scintillation and TEC Using Rocket Borne Ionospheric Density Measurements

Dec 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010agufmsm11a1687d&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2010, abstract #SM11A-1687

Physics

[2471] Ionosphere / Plasma Waves And Instabilities, [2706] Magnetospheric Physics / Cusp, [7944] Space Weather / Ionospheric Effects On Radio Waves

Scientific paper

Scintillations in trans-ionospheric radio signals arise as the signal propagates through naturally occurring plasma irregularities. If the receiver, satellite, or ionospheric irregularities are in motion, a time series of signal fading and phase fluctuations will occur at the receiver. It is well known that diffraction of the radio phase front produces amplitude and phase fluctuations even at GPS frequencies. Significant progress in scintillation modeling has been made since the dawn of the space age, with most of the efforts focused on statistically characterizing the plasma structure and radio wave fluctuations. In an attempt to better relate measured scintillations to the physical processes that cause them, we present results from modeling scintillation using a standard phase-screen approach but with electron density distributions measured from rocket borne Langmuir probes as input to model. The result of our model is simulated GPS phase and amplitude for a receiver on the ground, which we compare to actual GPS measurements from the Italian INGV network in the region. The ICI-2 Rocket was launched into moderate cusp irregularities on Dec 5, 2008, and measured three regions of F-region density fluctuation that appear consistent with the F-region gradient drift instability. These fluctuations caused modeled S4 of 0.2 and sigma phi of 0.1 consistent with nearby GPS measurements. One of the unexpected results of this work is that we find that the weak scintillations can cause non-physical fluctuations in TEC that peak at values as high as 2 TECU (~20 cm range error) and appear as TEC micropulsations, when indeed they are merely differenced diffraction patterns from two frequencies. This finding will be of interest to both practical GPS applications and scientists interested in using GPS to measure physical micropulsations.

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