A first look at the effects of ionospheric signal bending on a globally processed GPS network |
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Authors: | Elizabeth J Petrie Matt A King Philip Moore David A Lavallée |
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Institution: | (1) School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK;(2) Research Group of Astronomy and Geomatics, Technical University of Catalonia (gAGE/UPC), Mod. C3, Campus Nord UPC, Jordi Girona 1, 08034 Barcelona, Spain;(3) IFAC-CNR, Via Madonna del Piano 10, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy |
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Abstract: | This study provides a first attempt at quantifying potential signal bending effects on the GPS reference frame, coordinates
and zenith tropospheric delays (ZTDs). To do this, we homogeneously reanalysed data from a global network of GPS sites spanning
14 years (1995.0–2009.0). Satellite, Earth orientation, tropospheric and ground station coordinate parameters were all estimated.
We tested the effect of geometric bending and dTEC bending corrections, which were modelled at the observation level based,
in part, on parameters from the International Reference Ionosphere 2007 model. Combined, the two bending corrections appear
to have a minimal effect on site coordinates and ZTDs except for low latitude sites. Considering five days (DOY 301–305, 28
October–1 November 2001) near ionospheric maximum in detail, they affect mean ZTDs by up to ~1.7 mm at low latitudes, reducing
to negligible levels at high latitudes. Examining the effect on coordinates in terms of power-spectra revealed the difference
to be almost entirely white noise, with noise amplitude ranging from 0.3 mm (high latitudes) to 2.4 mm (low latitudes). The
limited effect on station coordinates is probably due to the similarity in the elevation dependence of the bending term with
that of tropospheric mapping functions. The smoothed z-translation from the GPS reference frame to ITRF2005 changes by less than 2 mm, though the effect combines positively with
that from the second order ionospheric refractive index term. We conclude that, at the present time, and for most practical
purposes, the geometric and dTEC bending corrections are probably negligible at current GPS/reference frame precisions. |
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