On the global kinematic positioning variations during the September 2017 solar flare events

Several X-class solar flares (SFs) with different intensities and locations on the solar disk occurred in September 2017. Among them, the X9.3 SF on 6 September 2017 was the most intensive SF in the 24th solar cycle. In this study, we investigated and compared the ionospheric response to the differe...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Nie, Wenfeng, Rovira Garcia, Adrià|||0000-0002-7320-5029, Wang, Yong, Zheng, Dunyong, Yan, Lingfei, Xu, Tianhe
Format: article
Publication Date:2022
Country:España
Institution:Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC)
Repository:UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC
Language:English
OAI Identifier:oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/376780
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2117/376780
https://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2021JA030245
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Solar activity
Global Positioning System
Ionosfera
Activitat solar
Sistema de posicionament global
Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Física
Description
Summary:Several X-class solar flares (SFs) with different intensities and locations on the solar disk occurred in September 2017. Among them, the X9.3 SF on 6 September 2017 was the most intensive SF in the 24th solar cycle. In this study, we investigated and compared the ionospheric response to the different X-class SFs and their impacts on the Global Positioning System (GPS) kinematic precise point positioning (PPP) solutions. We aim to study the mechanism behind the positioning degradation from the perspective of the impacts of the SF-induced ionosphere disturbance on the GPS data processing. By comparing the sudden ionospheric disturbance (SID) induced by the SFs, we observed that the SID is controlled by the intensity, the location, and the duration time of the SF. We found that the SID induced by the SF may deteriorate the cycle slip (CS) detection algorithms seriously. The threshold of the CS detection observables is sensitive to the SID, making the CS easier to be falsely detected. On the other hand, for the SF that occurred during the recovery phase of the geomagnetic storm, as the case of the X8.2 SF, the effects of the SF can reduce the precision of the GPS measurements, thus affecting the positioning accuracy. These mechanisms are essential and significant for the accuracy and stability of the kinematic PPP solution obtained with GPS during the SF events.