Modern ionospheric ray tracer for Earth observation satellite missions
Electromagnetic waves propagation through the ionosphere is subject to several effects including refraction, absorption, signal delay, or Faraday rotation. A ray tracer propagator that simulates these effects is an important tool for all satellite missions relying on trans-ionospheric communications...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2024 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) |
| Repositorio: | UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/411486 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2117/411486 https://dx.doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2024.3421509 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Ionosphere Mathematical models Electromagnetic waves Electrons Codes Computational modeling Earth Ray tracing Ionosfera Models matemàtics Ones electromagnètiques Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Enginyeria de la telecomunicació::Radiocomunicació i exploració electromagnètica::Satèl·lits i ràdioenllaços |
| Sumario: | Electromagnetic waves propagation through the ionosphere is subject to several effects including refraction, absorption, signal delay, or Faraday rotation. A ray tracer propagator that simulates these effects is an important tool for all satellite missions relying on trans-ionospheric communications and Earth observation. This study presents an update to the 1975 Jones & Stephenson IONORT's code by implementing the use of up-to-date ionospheric, atmospheric, and geomagnetic models (IRI or NeQuick, NRLMSISE-00, IGRF), and a new 3-D model for equatorial plasma bubbles (EPBs). The developed code is part of the Ionosphere Modular Software Package (IMSP) in the context of the European Space Agency (ESA) project SIMIONO. HF radar sounders, Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR), and GNSS Reflectometry (GNSS-R) missions constitute the main application of this software. The ray tracer has been validated with respect to the original software and by comparing real vs. simulated vertical ionograms in different locations and dates. |
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