Performance of different TEC models to provide GPS ionospheric corrections

Abstract

The existence of a worldwide international GPS service (IGS) permanent network of dual-frequency receivers makes the computation of global ionospheric maps (GIMs) of total electron content (TEC) feasible. The GIMs computed by the IGS Associate Analysis Centers on a daily basis and by other kinds of forecast GIMs, which can be computed from, for instance, the international reference ionosphere (IRI) model, and the GPS broadcast models in the navigation message, can be applied to a broad diversity of fields, for instance as, navigation and time transfer. In this context, the performance of different kinds of models are presented in order to determine the accuracy of the different GIM. This is carried out by comparison with the TOPEX data that provides an independent and precise (at the level of few TECU) vertical TEC determination over the oceans and seas. Thus, the obtained accuracies, in terms of global relative error, ranging from 54% corresponding to the GPS broadcast model, to about 41% corresponding to IRI climatological model, and to less than 30% corresponding to GPS data driven models.