Performance indicator development addressing mitigation of the space weather impacts on GNSS

Abstract

Within the European Space Agency's (ESA) Space Weather Service Network, the development of performance indicators for the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) has been identified as essential to meet the growing needs of end users for Space Weather information in the field of navigation. This requires a targeted analysis of Space Weather-related disturbances of technical systems and services in the field of satellite-based navigation, considering the growing requirements of all the different users in this domain. The goal of the Space Weather Impact on GNSS Performance: Application Development (SWIGPAD) project is to develop GNSS performance indicators (GPI) based on Space Weather data provided by European research institutes through the ESA Space Weather Service Portal (available at https://swe.ssa.esa.int) with the aim to fulfill representative use cases derived from dedicated meeting with industry and government experts. The application that serves the GPI will provide the user with information about current and expected effects of Space Weather on positioning at their respective location. Additionally, end users in the various GNSS application domains shall be assisted with an overall numerical and graphical estimate of the positioning uncertainty resulting from ionospheric conditions and its evolution over time. The intent of this article is to present the results of the project and the capabilities of the GPI application.