High-Precision Ionosphere Monitoring Using Continuous Measurements from BDS GEO Satellites.

Haiyan Yang,Xuhai Yang,Kunjuan Zhao,Zhe Zhang

doi:10.3390/s18030714

Abstract

The current constellation of the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) consists of five geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites, five inclined geosynchronous satellite orbit (IGSO) satellites, and four medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites. The advantage of using GEO satellites to monitor the ionosphereis the almost motionless ionospheric pierce point (IPP), which is analyzed in comparison with the MEO and IGSO satellites. The results from the analysis of the observations using eight tracking sites indicate that the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) sequence derived from each GEO satellite at their respective fixed IPPs is always continuous. The precision of calculated vertical TEC (VTEC) using BDS B1/B2, B1/B3, and B2/B3 dual-frequency combinationsis compared and analyzed. The VTEC12 precision based on the B1/B2 dual-frequency measurements using the smoothed code and the raw code combination is 0.69 and 5.54 TECU, respectively, which is slightly higher than VTEC13 and much higher than VTEC23. Furthermore, the ionospheric monitoring results of site JFNG in the northern hemisphere, and CUT0 in the southern hemisphere during the period from 1 January to 31 December 2015 are presented and discussed briefly.

Highlights

The second-generation BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), on 27 December 2012, became the third system around the world, after the Global Positioning System (GPS) and GlobalNavigation Satellite System (GLONASS), to provide position–navigation–time services [1,2,3,4]
It is composed of five geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites, five inclined geosynchronous satellite orbit (IGSO) satellites, and four medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites
By comparing the five GEO satellites, that the standarddeviation deviation (STD) value is related to the satellite elevation to a certain extent, and the satellites with lower elevation have a larger STD

Summary

Introduction

The second-generation BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), on 27 December 2012, became the third system around the world, after the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Global. Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), to provide position–navigation–time services [1,2,3,4]. It is composed of five geostationary earth orbit (GEO) satellites, five inclined geosynchronous satellite orbit (IGSO) satellites, and four medium earth orbit (MEO) satellites. At a fixed position in the sky, GEO satellites, components of the BDS constellation important for ground receivers, have unique characteristics and provide more opportunities to monitor and study the various phenomena of the earth’s ionosphere

Objectives

Discussion

Conclusion