Abstract
Ionospheric scintillation is one of the most challenging problems in Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) positioning and navigation. Scintillation occurrence can not only lead to an increase in the probability of losing the GNSS signal lock but also reduce the precision of the pseudorange and carrier phase measurements, thus leading to positioning accuracy degradation. Statistical models developed to estimate the probability of loss of lock and Geometric Dilution of Precision normalized 3D positioning errors as a function of scintillation levels are presented. The models were developed following the statistical approach of nonlinear regression on data recorded by Ionospheric Scintillation Monitoring Receivers operational at high and low latitudes. The validation of the probability of loss of lock models indicated average correlation coefficient values above 0.7 and average Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) values below 0.35. The validation of the positioning error models indicated average RMSE values below 10 cm. The good performance of the developed models indicates that these can provide GNSS users with information on the satellite loss of lock probability and the error in the 3D position under scintillation.
Highlights
The earth’s ionosphere is the single largest contributor to the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning error budget
The data collected by Ionospheric Scintillation Monitoring Receivers (ISMRs) in operation at the high and low latitudes during the years of 2012–2015 have been exploited to develop the statistical models to estimate the probability of loss of lock on the Global Positioning System (GPS) L1 frequency and the Geometric Dilution of Precision (GDOP) normalized 3D positioning errors
The development and validation of the statistical models following the approach of nonlinear regression to estimate the probability of loss of lock at high and low latitudes are described in the following sub-section
Summary
The earth’s ionosphere is the single largest contributor to the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning error budget. A phenomenon known as Ionospheric scintillation, characterized by fluctuations in the GNSS signal amplitude and phase, may seriously disrupt satellite tracking and degrade system accuracy, reliability and integrity (Kintner et al 2001). The two global regions where scintillation occurs predominantly are the equatorial to low latitude regions, extending from about 20°N to 20°S geomagnetic latitudes, and the high latitude regions, extending from 65° to 90° geomagnetic latitudes. In these two regions, the processes governing the generation of. A measure of the amplitude scintillation is provided by the S4 index, defined as the standard deviation of the received signal power normalized to the average signal power. Scintillation can increase the tracking jitter variance measured at the output of the PLL and the correlation
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