Distribution and mitigation of higher-order ionospheric effects on precise GNSS processing

Higher-order ionospheric effects (I2+) are one of the main limiting factors in very precise Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) processing, for applications where millimeter accuracy is demanded. This paper summarizes a comprehensive study of the I2+ effects in range and in GNSS precise produ...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Hernández Pajares, Manuel|||0000-0002-9687-5850, Aragón Ángel, María Ángeles|||0000-0002-8094-8517, Defraigne, Pascale, Bergeot, Nicolas, Prieto Cerdeira, Roberto, García Rigo, Alberto|||0000-0001-6226-4851
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2014
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:2117/28486
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/28486
https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2013JB010568
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Geophysics
higher order ionospheric effects
precise geodesy based on GNSS data
precise ionospheric modeling of GNSS observations
Geofísica
Classificació AMS::86 Geophysics
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Matemàtiques i estadística::Matemàtica aplicada a les ciències
Descripción
Sumario:Higher-order ionospheric effects (I2+) are one of the main limiting factors in very precise Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) processing, for applications where millimeter accuracy is demanded. This paper summarizes a comprehensive study of the I2+ effects in range and in GNSS precise products such as receiver position and clock, tropospheric delay, geocenter offset, and GNSS satellite position and clock. All the relevant higher-order contributions are considered: second and third orders, geometric bending, and slant total electron content (dSTEC) bending (i.e., the difference between the STEC for straight and bent paths). Using a realistic simulation with representative solar maximum conditions on GPS signals, both the effects and mitigation errors are analyzed. The usage of the combination of multifrequency L band observations has to be rejected due to its increased noise level. The results of the study show that the main two effects in range are the second-order ionospheric and dSTEC terms, with peak values up to 2 cm. Their combined impacts on the precise GNSS satellite products affects the satellite Z coordinates (up to +1 cm) and satellite clocks (more than ±20 ps). Other precise products are affected at the millimeter level. After correction the impact on all the precise GNSS products is reduced below 5 mm. We finally show that the I2+ impact on a Precise Point Positioning (PPP) user is lower than the current uncertainties of the PPP solutions, after applying consistently the precise products (satellite orbits and clocks) obtained under I2+ correction