Ionospheric tomography using Ørsted GPS measurements - preliminary results

Abstract

Data from the Turbo-Rogue GPS receiver onboard the Danish Ørsted Satellite are used to derive satellite-to-satellite Total Electron Content (TEC). We present preliminary results obtaining Electronic Density fields from ionospheric tomography using TEC Ørsted data. TEC is based on single frequency measurements, since only the L1 signal is of good quality. The C/A pseudo range (C1) and the L1 phase are used to obtain the TEC measurement. Electron density profiles from individual occultations are derived, based on the Abel transform, and compared with the tomographical solution. The assumption of spherical symmetry in the Abel transform limits the accuracy of the profiles and often results in a bias. We select occultations observed along the orbital plane to minimize the spherical assymetry effects. The tomographic grid is also confined to a narrow torus close to the orbital plane. The TEC calculations are based on data from 6 hour (3.6 orbits) periods. Two days have been selected for this study, December 5, 1999 and February 12, 1999.