Kinematic PPP Errors Associated with Ionospheric Plasma Irregularities during the 2015 St. Patrick’s Day Storm

Abstract

This paper presents a global view of kinematic Precise Point Positioning (PPP) estimates errors associated with ionospheric plasma irregularities occurred during the 17 March 2015 St. Patrick’s Day geomagnetic storm. The results show that the spatial-temporal variation of the kinematic PPP errors is strongly correlated with the occurrence intensity of the ionospheric plasma irregularities observed during the storm. On the day of the commencement of the storm, i.e., 17 March 2015, a meter-level of accuracy can be observed over both Northern and Southern Hemisphere, with a long-lasting period of up to sever hours of the large errors (>1 m) is predominantly seen over high latitudes of North American and European regions. It is observed that the storm-related plasma irregularities occurred related to the auroral energy deposition over the polar ionosphere, which cause the large degradation of PPP solutions at high latitudes. The results would be valuable for predict impact on GNSS-based kinematic applications when severe ionospheric storm prevails.