Comparison and Validation of Ionospheric GPS Occultation Measurements With Arecibo ISR Data
Abstract
The ionosphere is a dynamic region capable of adversely impacting a variety of space-based systems. Thus, it is imperative that accurate global monitoring of ionospheric conditions exists. Occultation measurements of GPS signals from receivers on Low Earth Orbiting (LEO) satellites are capable of supplying accurate, global monitoring of the ionosphere at a high vertical resolution. Each LEO satellite with a GPS receiver experiences nearly 500 ionospheric occultations a day globally. This paper presents several occultations from the IOX and CHAMP instruments that correspond to the approximate location and days of operation of the Arecibo Observatory (AO) Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR). There are forty-three ISR World Day observations since 2000 that are the focus of the following study. During the same observation periods, the IOX instrument observed over forty occultation events approximately co-located to AO. The closely circular and polar orbit of the CHAMP satellite routinely provides a global and homogenous observation of the near Earth's atmosphere. Thus, the possibility of co-located occultation events with AO on the specific days of interest increases further with the CHAMP instrument. Specific TEC data and Ne profiles from the GPS and ISR measurements are shown and compared. This paper also discusses limited statistics using the ISR and the two satellite data sets
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2004
- Bibcode:
- 2004AGUFMSF53A0721B
- Keywords:
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- 2400 IONOSPHERE;
- 2403 Active experiments;
- 2443 Midlatitude ionosphere;
- 2494 Instruments and techniques