Requirements for nanosatellite-mounted GNSS-based instrument measuring ionospheric total electron content

Abstract

A navigation receiver mounted on board of a micro/nanosatellite can be used as part of a scientific instrument for ionospheric study, for instance, identification of patterns in solar-terrestrial links and obtaining a set of statistical data to find the correlation between local fluctuations of the ionosphere and climatic changes. Such a device should produce an array of navigation measurements of carrier phases and pseudoranges, and also calculate on their basis the values of the absolute total electron content (TEC), which are used to study the ionosphere. To calculate the absolute TEC, we use a known technique that combines carrier phase and pseudorange measurements. Taking into account the peculiarities of this technique and the geometry of the measurements, we put forward a number of requirements for a scientific instrument to study the ionosphere.