一种融合测高仪与地面GPS数据的单站电离层反演方法

电离层层析成像技术非常适用于检测电离层电子密度的大尺度空间分布及其扰动。利用地面单站的GPSTEC值和另一站的数字测高仪观测数据，结合国际参考电离层（IRI），利用MART算法反演得到测站上空电子密度的垂直分布。利用白天和夜间的实测数据进行了CIT反演，结果表明了该方法的可靠性。     

Three-dimensional ionospheric tomography by an improved algebraic reconstruction technique

An improved algebraic reconstruction technique (IART) is presented for the tomographic reconstruction of ionospheric electron density (IED). This method applies the total electron content (TEC) measurements to invert the spatial distribution of the IED from a set of apriori IED distributions. In this new method, a data-driven adjustment of the relaxation parameter is performed to improve the computation efficiency and image quality of the classical algebraic reconstruction technique (ART). In addition, the new algorithm is also combined with ionospheric space discretization technique to simplify the inversion of IED, and it applies CHAMP occultation data to improve the vertical resolution. A numerical simulation experiment is carried out to validate the reliability of the new method. It is then applied to the inversion of IED from real GPS data. Inverted results show that the IART algorithm has better accuracy and efficiency than the conventional ART algorithm. The reliability of the IART algorithm is also validated by ionosonde data recorded at Wuhan station.     

A new two-step algorithm for ionospheric tomography solution

Ionospheric tomography inverse algorithms are usually an ill-conditioned problem because the geometric distribution of continuously operating reference GPS stations is not ideal for this task. In order to cope with such ill-conditioning, a new tomographic algorithm, termed two-step algorithm (TSA), is presented. The electron density is estimated in two steps: Phillips smoothing method (PSM) is first used to resolve the ill-conditioned problem in the ionospheric tomography system, and then, the PSM solution is input as an initial value to the multiplicative algebraic reconstruction technique (MART) and iteratively improved. Numerical simulations using the International Reference Ionosphere 2007 model demonstrate that the TSA is applicable to GPS-based ionospheric tomography reconstruction and is superior to PSM and MART when these techniques are used alone. The new algorithm is applied to reconstruct the ionospheric electron density distribution over China using GPS observations, and a comparison with ionosonde observations is made.     

Tomographic reconstruction of ionospheric electron density based on constrained algebraic reconstruction technique

A constrained algebraic reconstruction technique (CART) is proposed for the tomographic reconstruction of the ionospheric electron density distribution. The method uses a popular two-dimensional multi-point finite difference approximation of the second order Laplace operator to provide the constraint matrix. The tomographic results of a numerical simulation show that the reconstruction accuracy of electron density distribution is significantly improved. A careful validation of the reliability and superiority of CART is made. Finally, we applied the new method to the analysis of actual Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) observations and compared the results with ionosonde observation of Wuhan station.     

Use of radio-occultation data for ionospheric imaging during the April 2002 disturbances

In 1994, Hajj et al. (1994) proposed the use of radio occultation data in ionospheric imaging. The advantages gained by including this data source are examined in this paper. Many data sources including ground-based and satellite-based observations are available for the events of the April 2002 ionospheric disturbance. This period has been chosen to study simultaneous images of the disturbed ionosphere over the USA and Europe. A 4D tomographic imaging technique known as Multi-instrument Data Analysis System (MIDAS) (Mitchell and Spencer, 2003) is applied in this study. The primary purpose of the study is to compare images produced with and without the use of radio-occultation data. The work investigates whether GPS occultation combined with ground-based GPS data improves the determination of peak height and peak density in the images. The results indicate that the occultation data improve both the peak height and the peak density in the images. The use of ionosonde data is also examined and the results are compared between the USA and Europe.     

FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC observations of the ionospheric auroral oval development

The ionospheric radiance and electron density observed by the tiny ionospheric photometer (TIP) and GPS occultation experiment (GOX) payloads on FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC satellites are applied to determine the boundaries of the auroral oval and its width in the winter nighttime ionosphere for both hemispheres. The TIP collects ionospheric emission at 135.6 nm due to electron impact excitation, while the GOX offers ionospheric electron density profiles with radio occultation (RO) technique. Comparison between them shows similar patterns of the plasma structure in the polar caps. The mean width of the auroral bands ranges between about 2 and 11° latitude in the winter nighttime and it varies with longitudes. The comparison by month suggests that the mean radius of the auroral ovals varies with the intensity of the auroral radiance.     

Determination of the ionospheric foF2 using a stand-alone GPS receiver

The critical frequency of ionospheric F2 layer (foF2) is a measure of the highest frequency of radio signal that may be reflected back by the F2 layer, and it is associated with ionospheric peak electron density in the F2 layer. Accurate long-term foF2 variations are usually derived from ionosonde observations. In this paper, we propose a new method to observe foF2 using a stand-alone global positioning system (GPS) receiver. The proposed method relies on the mathematical equation that relates foF2 to GPS observations. The equation is then implemented in the Kalman filter algorithm to estimate foF2 at every epoch of the observation (30-s rate). Unlike existing methods, the proposed method does not require any additional information from ionosonde observations and does not require any network of GPS receivers. It only requires as inputs the ionospheric scale height and the modeled plasmaspheric electron content, which practically can be derived from any existing ionospheric/plasmaspheric model. We applied the proposed method to estimate long-term variations of foF2 at three GPS stations located at the northern hemisphere (NICO, Cyprus), the southern hemisphere (STR1, Australia) and the south pole (SYOG, Antarctic). To assess the performance of the proposed method, we then compared the results against those derived by ionosonde observations and the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) 2012 model. We found that, during the period of high solar activity (2011–2012), the values of absolute mean bias between foF2 derived by the proposed method and ionosonde observations are in the range of 0.2–0.5 MHz, while those during the period of low solar activity (2009–2010) are in the range of 0.05–0.15 MHz. Furthermore, the root-mean-square-error (RMSE) values during high and low solar activities are in the range of 0.8–0.9 MHz and of 0.6–0.7 MHz, respectively. We also noticed that the values of absolute mean bias and RMSE between foF2 derived by the proposed method and the IRI-2012 model are slightly larger than those between the proposed method and ionosonde observations. These results demonstrate that the proposed method can estimate foF2 with a comparable accuracy. Since the proposed method can estimate foF2 at every epoch of the observation, it therefore has promising applications for investigating various scales (from small to large) of foF2 irregularities.     

海口地区扩展F和GPS电离层闪烁发生时间相关性分析

对2012年8月至2013年7月太阳活动高年海口地区扩展F和GPS L1频段电离层闪烁进行了发生时间相关性分析。结果表明,该地区的GPS电离层闪烁与扩展F具有较好的相关性,二者发生的相关系数为095.受太阳活动高年低纬电离层不均匀体发展演化特性和设备观测方式的影响,观测到的电离层闪烁起始时间稍早于扩展F。扩展F结束时间比电离层闪烁结束时间有所滞后,分析认为,在低纬电离层不均匀体的消亡阶段,1 km以下中小尺度的不均匀体首先消失。      

GPS observations of the ionospheric F2-layer behavior during the 20th November 2003 geomagnetic storm over South Korea

The ionospheric F2-layer peak density (NmF2) and its height (hmF2) are of great influence on the shape of the ionospheric electron density profile Ne (h) and may be indicative of other physical processes within the ionosphere, especially those due to geomagnetic storms. Such parameters are often estimated using models such as the semiempirical international reference ionosphere (IRI) models or are measured using moderately priced to expensive instrumentation, such as ionosondes or incoherent scatter radars. Global positioning system (GPS) observations have become a powerful tool for mapping high-resolution ionospheric structures, which can be used to study the ionospheric response to geomagnetic storms. In this paper, we describe how 3-D ionospheric electron density profiles were produced from data of the dense permanent Korean GPS network using the tomography reconstruction technique. These profiles are verified by independent ionosonde data. The responses of GPS-derived parameters at the ionospheric F2-layer to the 20th November 2003 geomagnetic storm over South Korea are investigated. A fairly large increase in the electron density at the F2-layer peak (the NmF2) (positive storm) has been observed during this storm, which is accompanied by a significant uplift in the height of the F2 layer peak (the hmF2). This is confirmed by independent ionosonde observations. We suggest that the F2-layer peak height uplift and NmF2 increase are mainly associated with a strong eastward electric field, and are not associated with the increase of the O/N₂ ratio obtained from the GUVI instruments aboard the TIMED satellite. It is also inferred that the increase in NmF2 is not caused by the changes in neutral composition, but is related to other nonchemical effects, such as dynamical changes of vertical ion motions induced by winds and E × B drifts, tides and waves in the mesosphere/lower thermosphere region, which can be dynamically coupled upward to generate ionospheric perturbations and oscillations.     

Ionospheric delay corrections for single-frequency GPS receivers over Europe using tomographic mapping

The majority of navigation satellites receivers operate on a single frequency and experience a positioning error due to the ionospheric delay. This can be compensated for using a variety of approaches that are compared in this paper. The study focuses on the last solar maximum. A 4D tomographic imaging technique is used to map the ionospheric electron density over the European region during 2002 and 2003. The electron density maps are then used to calculate the excess propagation delay on the L1 frequency experienced by GPS receivers at selected locations across Europe. The excess delay is applied to correct the pseudo-range single frequency observations at each location and the improvements to the resulting positioning are calculated. The real-time tomographic technique is shown to give navigation solutions that are better than empirical modelling methods and approach the accuracy of the full dual-frequency solution. The improvements in positioning accuracy vary from day to day depending on ionospheric conditions but can be up to 25 m during mid-day during these solar maximum conditions at European mid-latitudes.

日本九州岛地震震前电离层TEC异常

采用IGS发布的GIM数据,提出了一种结合滑动时窗法和临近格网点电离层TEC相关性分析法的联合分析方法,研究了震前电离层异常变化与地震的关系。通过分析震区附近5个格网点TEC的异常变化情况,发现震前电离层TEC发生明显异常变化,且格网点之间的TEC序列相关性受地震显著影响;通过分析二维电离层图的TEC异常空间分布,发现震前三天震中附近分别出现6h、12h和6h的异常。最后利用电离层层析的方法,对电离层异常时刻进行了电子密度的反演,进一步分析了电子密度在电离层异常时刻的分布情况。     

GPS–TEC response to the substorm onset during April 5, 2010, magnetic storm

We consider disturbances of total electron content (TEC) of the high-latitude ionosphere provided by the GPS global navigation satellite system before and during the magnetic storm on April 5, 2010. Simultaneously, we examine magnetic data from all available magnetometer arrays in the northern hemisphere, augmented with data from scanning photometers and riometers. The substorm onset, during both non-storm and storm periods, is found to cause significant enhancement of TEC scintillations characterized by the TEC time derivative dTEC. Comparison of 2D maps of the spectral power of magnetic fluctuations in the Pc5 band (1–10 mHz) and dTEC during substorms shows a good spatial and temporal correspondence between them. Both magnetic and ionospheric fluctuations tend to concentrate inside the auroral oval, the boundaries of which are determined from the OVATION model. The time–space evolution of TEC scintillations is rather similar to that of ultra-low-frequency magnetic fluctuations, but not to that of the ionospheric electrojet. GPS signal phase slips, resulting in non-physical TEC jumps (>1 TECu/min), occur predominantly inside the auroral oval and in the vicinity of its equatorward boundary.     

Ionospheric tomography based on GNSS observations of the CMONOC: performance in the topside ionosphere

This study carries out a quantitative analysis of the performance of ionospheric tomography in the topside ionosphere, utilizing data of October 2011 collected from 260 Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations in the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China. This tomographic reconstruction with a resolution of 2° in latitude, 2° in longitude and 20 km in altitude has more than 70 % of voxels traversed by GPS raypaths and is able to provide reliable bottom parts of ionospheric profiles. Compared with the observations measured by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites (F16, F17 and F18) at an altitude of 830–880 km, the results show that there is an overestimation in the reconstructed plasma density at the DMSP altitude, and the reconstruction is better during daytime than nighttime. In addition, the reconstruction at nighttime also indicates a solar activity and latitudinal dependence. In summary, with respect to DMSP measurements, the daytime bias is on average from ?0.32 × 10⁵/cm³ to ?0.28 × 10⁵/cm³, while the nighttime bias is between ?0.37 × 10⁵/cm³ and ?0.24 × 10⁵/cm³, and the standard deviation at daytime and at nighttime is, respectively, 0.082 × 10⁵/cm³ to 0.244 × 10⁵/cm³ and 0.086 × 10⁵/cm³ to 0.428 × 10⁵/cm³. This study suggests that vertical ionospheric profiles from other sources, such as ionosondes or GNSS occultation satellites, should be incorporated into ground-based GNSS topside tomographic studies.     

Ionospheric electron density observed by FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC over the European region and validated by ionosonde data

This research is motivated by the recent IGS Ionosphere Working Group recommendation issued at the IGS 2010 Workshop held in Newcastle, UK. This recommendation encourages studies on the evaluation of the application of COSMIC radio occultation profiles for additional IGS global ionosphere map (GIM) validation. This is because the reliability of GIMs is crucial to many geodetic applications. On the other hand, radio occultation using GPS signals has been proven to be a promising technique to retrieve accurate profiles of the ionospheric electron density with high vertical resolution on a global scale. However, systematic validation work is still needed before using this powerful technique for sounding the ionosphere on a routine basis. In this paper, we analyze the properties of the ionospheric electron density profiling retrieved from COSMIC radio occultation measurements. A comparison of radio occultation data with ground-based measurements indicates that COSMIC profiles are usually in good agreement with ionosonde profiles, both in the F2 layer peak electron density and the bottom side of the profiles. For this comparison, ionograms recorded by European ionospheric stations (DIAS network) in 2008 were used.     

基于CORS数据反演江苏上空电离层电子密度

本文利用IRI2007模型和江苏CORS网数据,结合附加约束的同时迭代重构算法,反演了地磁平静日江苏上空电子密度的结构分布。结果表明,整个研究区域电子密度在不同纬度和不同高度上存在明显的日变特征,电子密度最大值出现在北京时13～15时,随着时间推移,峰值幅度衰减;白天出现明显的E层,夜晚消失;反演结果说明了电离层三维层析技术为监测电离层时空结构提供了一种强有力的实验支持。     

Studies of storm-enhanced density impact on DGPS using IGS reference station data

DGPS services are provided in support of land and marine applications by many government agencies worldwide. Horizontal positioning accuracies in the order of several metres are typically achieved for these systems. Under high levels of ionospheric activity, however, significant degradations in DGPS positioning accuracies can occur. In particular, gradients of up to 50 ppm are associated with a feature known as storm-enhanced density (SED). This feature is a localized enhancement of total electron content (TEC) extending north through the mid-latitudes into the polar region. DGPS positioning errors of 20 m or more can persist for hours during such events. In this paper, archived IGS data from GPS reference stations are used to derive high-resolution TEC maps for two SED events. The impact of SED effects on DGPS horizontal positioning accuracies is then quantified using data from select IGS reference stations in North America and Europe. Results indicate that positioning accuracies may be degraded by factors as large as 10–20 during such events.     

GPS radio occultation measurements on ionospheric electron density from low Earth orbit

Since the proof-of-concept GPS/Meteorology (GPS/MET) experiment successfully demonstrated active limb sounding of the Earth’s neutral atmosphere and ionosphere via GPS radio occultation (RO) from low Earth orbit, the developments of electron density (n _e) retrieval techniques and powerful processing systems have made a significant progress in recent years. In this study, the researches of n _e profiling from space-based GPS RO observations are briefly reviewed. Applying to the Formosat-3/Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate (FS3/COSMIC) data, we also present a compensatory Abel inversion technique including the effects of large-scale horizontal gradients and/or inhomogeneous ionospheric n _e obtained from an improved near real-time phenomenological model of the TaiWan Ionospheric Model. The results were evaluated by the ionosonde foF2 and foE data and showed improvements of rms foF2 difference from 29.2 to 16.5% in relative percentage and rms foE difference from 54.2 to 32.7% over the standard Abel inversion.     

A modified three-dimensional ionospheric tomography algorithm with side rays

The three-dimensional ionospheric tomography (3DCIT) algorithm based on Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) observations have been developed into an effective tool for ionospheric monitoring in recent years. However, because the rays that come into or come out from the side of the inversion region cannot be used, the distribution of the rays in the edge and bottom part of the inversion region is scarce and the electron density cannot be effectively improved in the inversion process. We present a three-dimensional tomography algorithm with side rays (3DCIT-SR) applying the side rays to the inversion. The partial slant total electron content (STEC) of side rays in the inversion region is obtained based on the NeQuick2 model and GNSS-STEC. The simulation experiment results show that the algorithm can effectively improve the distribution of GNSS rays in the inversion region. Meanwhile, the iteration accuracy has also been significantly improved. After the same number of iterations, the iterative results of 3DCIT-SR are closer to the truth than 3DCIT, in particular, the inversion of the edge regions is improved noticeably. The GNSS data of the International GNSS Service (IGS) stations in Europe are used to perform real data experiments, and the inversion results show that the electron density profiles of 3DCIT-SR are closer to the ionosonde measurements. The accuracy improvement of 3DCIT-SR is up to 56.3% while the improvement is more obvious during the magnetic storm compared to the case of a calm ionospheric state .     

一种适用于电离层电子密度重构的AMART算法

针对传统乘法代数重构算法（MART）迭代精度不高的问题,提出一种自适应电离层层析新算法。一方面,该算法根据射线穿越像素点的截距和电子密度值的综合影响,合理地分配迭代差值;另一方面,提出一种与电子密度值相关的自适应松弛因子,有效克服传播噪声对电子密度反演的影响。试验采用全球电离层图（GIM）数据和GPS双频观测数据分别从单射线迭代和多射线迭代两个方面对新方法的可行性和优越性进行验证。试验结果表明,相对于传统的MART算法,本文方法反演电子密度剖面更接近电离层测高仪观测结果。     

Climatological study of ionospheric irregularities over the European mid-latitude sector with GPS

High-frequency variability of the ionosphere, or irregularities, constitutes the main threat for real-time precise positioning techniques based on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) measurements. Indeed, during periods of enhanced ionospheric variability, GNSS users in the field—who cannot verify the integrity of their measurements—will experience positioning errors that can reach several decimeters, while the nominal accuracy of the technique is cm-level. In the frame of this paper, a climatological analysis of irregularities over the European mid-latitude region is presented. Based on a 10 years GPS dataset over Belgium, the work analyzes the occurrence rate (as a function of the solar cycle, season and local time) as well as the amplitude of ionospheric irregularities observed at a single GPS station. The study covers irregularities either due to space weather events (solar origin) or of terrestrial origin. If space weather irregularities are responsible for the largest effects in terms of ionospheric error, their occurrence rate highly depends on solar activity. Indeed, the occurrence rate of ionospheric irregularities is about 9 % during solar maximum, whereas it drops to about 0 % during medium or low solar activity periods. Medium-scale ionospheric disturbances (MSTIDs) occurring during daytime in autumn/winter are the most recurrent pattern of the time series, with yearly proportions slightly varying with the solar cycle and an amplitude of about 10 % of the TEC background. Another recurrent irregularity type, though less frequent than MSTIDs, is the noise-like variability in TEC observed during summer nighttime, under quiet geomagnetic conditions. These summer nighttime irregularities exhibit amplitudes ranging between 8 and 15 % of the TEC background.