Real-Time Monitoring and Logging of Ionospheric Scintillation and Total Electron Content

Abstract

This paper presents a study on ionospheric scintillation and total electron content (TEC) in real-time over Pakistan by using a Septentrio Polarx5S multi-frequency and multi-constellation Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver. The ionosphere is the main cause of affecting the performance of a GNSS receiver due to being upper most layer in the Earth's atmosphere consisting of electrically charged particles such as free electrons, atoms and molecules. The presence of these electrically charged particles in the ionosphere degrades the trans-ionospheric signals by producing rapid variations in the amplitude and phase of the received signals such as GPS. These variations in the amplitude and phase are termed as ionospheric scintillation. The effects of scintillation are different at different latitudes and severe scintillation is usually observed during the peak of the solar maximum period or during a severe geomagnetic storm. The effects of scintillation on satellite signals has urged the need to understand the scintillation morphology at all latitudes. This paper presents the ionospheric scintillation and TEC variations over Pakistan by logging the real time GPS data. The data is collected by installing a Septentrio multi-frequency GNSS receiver at Sukkur, Pakistan (Latitude 27.73°N, Longitude 68.82°E). This is the first ever space weather monitoring station installed for research purposes anywhere in Pakistan. The main aim of this paper is to efficiently log scintillation for understanding the scintillation occurrence patterns over Pakistan and to analyze how the scintillation can affect the performance of GNSS receivers. This paper uses a data set of a single day, i.e.,24 hours only but this can be extended for more thorough study on ionospheric scintillation by taking a long dataset if desired.