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| Titel |
Vertical Total Electron Content Maps Over Europe From EUREF Permanent Network GPS Data |
| VerfasserIn |
N. Bergeot, C. Bruyninx, S. Pireaux, P. Defraigne, J. Legrand, Q. Baire, E. Pottiaux |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2009
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 11 (2009) |
| Datensatznummer |
250024021
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| Zusammenfassung |
| The study of the ionosphere over Europe is essential for applications in the field of
geophysics and space weather research (e.g. seismic monitoring, study of the interaction
between Sun and Atmosphere) and it can also provide valuable information in support of
radio system transmissions. Moreover, GPS errors induced by the ionosphere will increase in
the next years due to the growing solar activity since the beginning of the 24th sunspot cycle
in March 2008.
To better understand the physics of the ionosphere and its effects on GPS positioning, the
Royal Observatory of Belgium (ROB) is developing an automatic monitoring to detect rapid
ionospheric changes in both time and space domains using the EUREF Permanent Network
(EPN) GNSS data.
In this study, we describe the method adopted by ROB to obtain 1°/1° hourly maps of the
Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) over Europe from the phase-smoothed code
observations from 150 to 200 EPN stations. We focused on two characteristic ionospheric
activity periods: 1) a period of rapid changes in the ionospheric state due to the Halloween
geomagnetic super-storm of 29-31 October 2003; 2) a period of normal ionospheric activity
in the beginning of 2008.
To validate our results we compared our VTEC maps with Global Ionospheric
Maps (GIM) GPS based products (e.g. from CODE, IGS). The comparisons during
normal ionospheric activity show differences of 0.1±1 TECU between the ROB
and GIM products. However, during rapid changes in the ionospheric state, the
differences are estimated to 1±3 TECU. This is caused by the smoothing of the
ionospheric signal in the GIM which are given for 2 hourly intervals on a 5°/2.5°
grid.
In conclusion, our TEC products are in good agreement with GIM products during
normal ionospheric activity and allow to better detect rapid changes in the ionospheric state
compared to global products. |
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