Impact of Geomagnetic Storms on Ionosphere Variability and Precise Point Positioning Application in High Latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere

Abstract

Based on the ionospheric scintillation data of the Canadian High Arctic Ionospheric Network (CHAIN), the variation characteristics of ionospheric Total Electric Content (TEC), phase scintillation and Rate of TEC Index (ROTI) were analyzed during the 26 August 2018 geomagnetic storm period. Results show that the TEC anomalies reach 20 TECU on global scale and 6 TECU over Canadian regions, respectively. The occurrence of phase scintillations is about 12.6% during the selected stormy day, which is only around 1% during geomagnetic quiet period. The occurrence of ROTI exhibits high correlation with that of phase scintillations during stormy geomagnetic conditions. The impact of ionospheric scintillations on positioning performance was analyzed by means of GPS Precise Point Positioning (PPP). It is proved that the 3D positioning root mean square errors are within 0.4 m for all test stations during the quiet geomagnetic condition. When it comes to the high geomagnetic condition, the magnitude of positioning errors significantly increase, which reaches 0.9 and 1.7 m in horizontal and vertical directions, respectively.