A New Ionosphere Monitoring Technology Based on GPS

Although global positioning system (GPS) was originally planned as a satellite-based radio-navigation system for military purposes, civilian users have significantly increased their access to the system for both, commercial and scientific applications. Almost 400 permanent GPS tracking stations have been stablished around the globe with the main purpose of supporting scientific research. In addition, several GPS receivers on board of low Earth orbit satellites fitted with special antennas that focus on Earth's horizon, are tracking the radio signals broadcasted by the high-orbiting GPS satellites, as they rise and set on Earth horizon. The data of these ground and space-born GPS receivers, readily accessible through Internet in a ‘virtual observatory’ managed by the International GPS Service, are extensively used for many researches and might possibly ignite a revolution in Earth remote sensing. By measuring the changes in the time it takes for the GPS signals to arrive at the receiver as they travel through Earth's atmosphere, scientists can derive a surprising amount of information about the Earth's ionosphere, a turbulent shroud of charged particles that, when stimulated by solar flares, can disrupt communications around the world. This contribution presents a methodology to obtain high temporal resolution images of the ionospheric electron content that lead to two-dimensional vertical total electron content maps and three-dimensional electron density distribution. Some exemplifying results are shown at the end of the paper.     

Sun-induced variations in time in the global positioning system

Sun-induced effects on the measurement and transfer of time information reported by orbiting satellites are reexamined. The problem of transforming the frequency of coherent radio signals to the Geocentric Inertial Coordinate frame (as required during the transfer of time information) involves an implicit, dependence on earth-sun-clock orientation that has been omitted, except in Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) studies. This known VLBI effect leads to an important second order Doppler effect. The effect explains systematic deviations between the time reported by satellites in the Global Positioning System (GPS) relative to Universal Time (UT) and can be used to improve existing bounds for the validity of the equivalence principle.     

GIM在LEO卫星单频GPS定轨中的应用

电离层延迟误差是单频GPS(Global Positioning System)数据最主要的误差源,为提高基于单频GPS数据的LEO(Low Earth Orbiting)卫星定轨精度,必须消除/减弱GPS观测数据中电离层延迟影响.研究了全球电离层模型GIM(Global IonosphericMaps)在基于单频GPS伪距数据的低轨卫星运动学和动力学定轨中的应用,并通过估算电离层尺度因子的方法消除C/A码伪距观测量中电离层延迟影响.由于LEO卫星星载GPS信号受电离层延迟影响与卫星轨道高度相关,选取了轨道高度在300～800 km的CHAMP(CHAllenging Mini-satellite Payload)、GRACE(Gravity Recovery AndClimate Experiment)、TerraSAR-X及SAC-C等LEO卫星C/A码伪距观测量作为试算数据.CHAMP等卫星实测数据计算结果表明:以JPL(Jet Propulsion Laboratory)发布的GIM模型作为背景模型,通过电离层比例因子法能很好地消除C/A码伪距观测量中电离层延迟影响,提高LEO卫星运动学和动力学定轨精度,其中,CHAMP卫星轨道最低,受电离层延迟影响最严重,定轨精度提高最显著,分别为55.6%和47.6%;SAC-C卫星轨道高度最高,受电离层延迟影响最小,相应的定轨精度提高幅度也最低,分别为47.8%和38.2%.     

Communication-based positioning systems:past,present and prospects

This paper reviews positioning systems in the context of communication systems.First,the basic positioning technique is described for location based service(LBS) in mobile communication systems.Then the high integrity global positioning system(iGPS) is introduced in terms of aspects of what it is and how the low Earth orbit(LEO) Iridium telecommunication satellites enhance the global positioning system(GPS).Emphasis is on the Chinese Area Positioning System(CAPS) which is mainly based on commercial geostationary(GEO) communication satellites,including decommissioned GEO and inclined geosynchronous communication satellites.Characterized by its low cost,high flexibility,wide-area coverage and ample frequency resources,a distinctive feature of CAPS is that its navigation messages are generated on the ground,then uploaded to and forwarded by the communication satellites.Fundamental principles and key technologies applied in the construction of CAPS are presented in detail from the CAPS validation phase to its experimental system setup.A prospective view of CAPS has concluded it to be a seamless,high accuracy,large capacity navigation and communication system which can be achieved by expanding it world wide and enhancing it with LEO satellites and mobile base stations.Hence,this system is a potential candidate for the next generation of radio navigation after GPS.     

Effects on the plasmasphere of a time-varying convection electric field

The time evolution of the plasmasphere has been investigated theoretically, using simple computational models. The magnetic field is assumed to be dipolar and time-independent, but the convection electric field is allowed to vary in time. For purposes of comparison, various spatial distributions of the magnetospheric electric field are considered. Plasmasphere flux tubes are assumed to be filled by diffusion of plasma upwards from the dayside ionosphere. Following a reduction in the convection field, the bulge of the original plasmasphere develops into a long tail that gradually wraps itself around the main plasmasphere. Periodic gusts in a spatially uniform convection field produce extremely complicated fine structure that depends strongly on both local time and universal time. Each large gust produces a distinct tail of cold plasma that stretches from the main body of the plasmasphere to the magnetopause, and causes a peak in density, outside the main plasmapause; similar features have been observed by OGO satellites. The calculations indicate that a periodic gusty field has a major effect on the size of the plasmasphere if the field has large Fourier components close to the drift period of cold plasma near the plasmapause. Gusts occurring randomly, at an average rate of several a day, can also cause substantial reduction in the size of the plasmasphere. The assumption that the convection field is spatially uniform, but gusty, leads to better agreement with the observed average shape of the plasmasphere than the assumption of a constant, uniform electric field. The theory indicates that the thickness of the plasmasphere boundary should be inversely correlated with magnetic activity, in general agreement with OGO 5 observations.     

Space correction of global models of electron number density in the ionosphere by receiving at one site signals from low-orbit satellites

A technique for updating global models of the electron density N in real time is developed. It employs the ionospheric part of the Doppler shift due to the rate of change of the total electron content determined at one site from measurements of signals from the radio beacons aboard low-orbit satellites. This technique enables corrections of the Chiu model over a region of about 1,000 km in a North-South direction. To study a possibility of predicting N in an East-West direction using the corrected model, we employ the measurements of satellite signals received at three sites spaced up to 2,000 km. For updating global N models, it is determined that spacing between correction sites can be up to about 3,000 to 4,000 km.     

Charged dust in the outer planetary magnetospheres

Interplanetary dust grains entering the Jovian plasmasphere become charged, and those in a certain size range get magneto-gravitationally trapped in the corotating plasmasphere. The trajectories of such dust grains intersect the orbits of one or more of the Galilean satellites. Orbital calculations of micron sized dust grains show that they impact the outermost satellite Callisto predominantly on its leading face, while they impact the inner three — Io, Europa and Ganymede — predominantly on the trailing face. These results are offered as an explanation of the observed brightness asymmetry between the leading and trailing faces of the outer three Galilean satellites. The albedo of Io is likely to be determined by its volcanism.     

The Application of GIM in Precise Orbit Determination for LEO Satellites with Single-Frequency GPS Measurements

With the precise GPS ephemeris and clock error available, the iono- spheric delay is left as the dominant error source in the single-frequency GPS data. Thus, the removal of ionospheric effects is a ma jor prerequisite for an improved orbit reconstruction of LEO satellites based on the single-frequency GPS data. In this paper, the use of Global Ionospheric Maps (GIM) in kine- matic and dynamic orbit determinations for LEO satellites with single-frequency GPS pseudorange measurements is discussed first, and then, estimating the iono- spheric scale factor to remove the ionospheric effects from the C/A-code pseu- dorange measurements for both kinematic and dynamic orbit determinations is addressed. As it is known that the ionospheric delay of space-borne GPS sig- nals is strongly dependent on the orbit altitudes of LEO satellites, we select the real C/A-code pseudorange measurement data of the CHAMP, GRACE, TerraSAR-X and SAC-C satellites with altitudes between 300 km and 800 km as sample data in this paper. It is demonstrated that the approach to eliminating ionospheric effects in C/A-code pseudorange measurements by estimating the ionospheric scale factor is highly effective. Employing this approach, the accu- racy of both kinematic and dynamic orbits can be improved notably. Among those five LEO satellites, CHAMP with the lowest orbit altitude has the most remarkable improvements in orbit accuracy, which are 55.6% and 47.6% for kine- matic and dynamic orbits, respectively. SAC-C with the highest orbit altitude has the least improvements in orbit accuracy accordingly, which are 47.8% and 38.2%, respectively.     

中高轨卫星广播星历精度分析

GPS广播星历参数具有物理意义明确、参数少、精度高等优点,可以考虑将它应用于其他卫星导航系统。但是GPS系统的卫星构成比较单一,而其他卫星导航系统可能包含中地球轨道 (MEO)、倾斜地球同步轨道(IGSO)和地球静止轨道(GEO)等多种不同类型的中高轨卫星。分析了采用GPS广播星历参数时,MEO、IGSO和GEO卫星的广播星历拟合精度,特别讨论了轨道倾角接近于0的GEO卫星的广播星历拟合精度,并给出了相应的改进措施。计算表明,对于 MEO卫星,2 h的广播星历拟合精度(三维位置)可达厘米级;对于IGSO卫星和轨道倾角较大的GEO卫星,4 h的广播星历拟合精度约为0．1 m,径向位置误差在厘米量级;而对于轨道倾角接近于0的GEO卫星,若不采取特殊措施,由于轨道倾角和升交点经度统计相关,其广播星历拟合精度很差,为此提出了一种坐标转换方法。采用此方法后的广播星历拟合精度可达0．1 m,径向位置误差为厘米量级。     

多模卫星导航系统的RAIM算法研究

研究了多模卫星导航系统的RAIM（接收机完好性自主检测）算法,根据多模卫星导航系统的定位模型,基于最小二乘法的原理计算伪距残差,构造奇偶矢量进行故障检测和故障排除。在只有一个观测量出现粗差的前提下,仿真了GPS与多模GPS／GLONAss／Galileo系统下的卫星可见数和DOP（精度因子）,对比了衡量RAIM算法可用性的水平保护门限值（HPL）及这2种系统下的故障检测率与故障排除率。仿真结果表明：与GPS相比,多模导航系统具有更多的可见星,RAIM算法的可用性更高,并且其故障检测和故障排除的性能更好。因此,多模卫星导航系统不仅能为用户提供更高的定位精度,还能为用户提供更好的完好性保障。     

非圆轨道GPS/LEO掩星反演地球大气参数的算法及讨论

在非圆轨道GPS和LEO卫星条件下，给出一种较为直接的GPS／LEO掩星反演地球大气参数技术中弯曲角序列的迭代算法，并在理论上对该迭代法的收敛性进行了严格的数学证明．利用GPS掩星反演模拟程序，定量估算了卫星圆轨道假设对GPS／LEO掩星反演地球大气参数的影响，并验证了在非圆轨道条件下各种迭代法的一致性．指出了文献中给出的级数展开迭代算法的不足之处．     

Optical and near-infrared imaging of faint Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum sources

A sample of 47 faint Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum (GPS) radio sources selected from the Westerbork Northern Sky Survey (WENSS) has been imaged in the optical and near-infrared, resulting in an identification fraction of 87 per cent. The R  −  I R  −  K colours of the faint optical counterparts are as expected for passively evolving elliptical galaxies, assuming that they follow the R -band Hubble diagram as determined for radio-bright GPS galaxies. We find evidence that the radio spectral properties of the GPS quasars are different from those of GPS galaxies. The observed distribution of radio spectral peak frequencies for GPS sources optically identified with bright stellar objects (presumably quasars) is shifted compared with GPS sources identified with faint or extended optical objects (presumably galaxies), in the sense that a GPS quasar is likely to have a higher peak frequency than a GPS galaxy. This means that the true peak frequency distribution is different for the GPS galaxies and quasars, because the sample selection effects are independent of optical identification. The correlation between peak frequency and redshift that has been suggested for bright sources has not been found in this sample; no correlation exists between R magnitude (and therefore redshift) and peak frequency for the GPS galaxies. We therefore believe that the claimed correlation is actually caused by the dependence of the peak frequency on optical host, because the GPS galaxies are generally at lower redshifts than the quasars. The difference in the peak frequency distributions of the GPS galaxies and quasars is further evidence against the hypothesis that they form a single class of object.     

GNSS software receiver for the MAGIA (Missione Altimetrica Geofisica GeochImica lunAre) mission

In recent years a number of missions have been conceived to acquire and track signals from GPS satellites at altitudes higher than the GPS constellation itself. The main purpose of SDR is to reduce the number of hardware components, projected for specific unmodifiable uses, and utilize general purpose units: on board CPU, DSP or FPGA. In this paper he study and design of a GNSS Software Receiver for space application, applied to a Lunar Mission, is presented with particular attention on Space Segment device and on Ground Facilities.     

Radio frequency compatibility analysis for BDSBAS and GPS/WAAS

Radio frequency signal compatibility is the basis of interoperability of the Satellite eBased Augmentation System(SBAS). SBAS should abide by relative international radio regulations of International Telecommunication Union(ITU) and meet the compatibility requirements of radio frequency signal between the Global Navigation Satellite System(GNSS)/SBAS, in order to avoid negative mutual interference. According to ITU Proposal and related reference and assumptions, the paper made simulation of signal receiving maximum power in the Bei Dou Satellite-Based Augmentation System(BDSBAS)global signal coverage. And then, interference of BDSBAS to Global Positioning System(GPS)/WAAS(Wide Area Augmentation System) on L1/L5 bands were calculated and analyzed, with equivalent carrierto-noise ratio as the evaluation parameter. The result shows that the carrier-to-noise ratio decrease of GPS/WAAS caused by BDSBAS B1 C and B2 a signals are extremely lower than inter-system interference of GPS/WAAS, and thus can be ignored in practical applications. Therefore, BDSBAS will not cause the service performance degradation of GPS and WAAS.     

同波束VLBI差分时延率研究

通过分析SELENE的两颗小卫星Rstar和Vstar的同波束VLBI数据,发现两卫星间差分时延率中由中性大气和电离层引起的长周期变化已被去除,且在小角距时,短周期变化也能绝大部分被去除。但角距离越大,去除部分越小。通过将2008年一年中8个台站组成的所有基线的相关相位拟合残差数据分别平滑积分30 s与60 s后,再通过5点直线拟合求得时延率,得出单卫星时延率随机误差分别约为0.32 ps/s RMS与0.20 ps/s RMS,而差分时延率随机误差分别为0.19 ps/s~0.32 ps/s RMS与0.09 ps/s~0.17 ps/s RMS。单卫星的时延率随机误差在秋季最大,春季最小,而差分时延率的随机误差在全年基本稳定。     

Faint Gigahertz Peaked Spectrum sources and the evolution of young radio sources

GPS sources are the objects of choice to study the initial evolution of extragalactic radio sources, since it is most likely that they are the young counterparts of large scale radio sources. Correlations found between their peak frequency, peak flux density and angular size provide strong evidence that synchrotron self absorption is the cause of the spectral turnovers, and indicate that young radio sources evolve in a self-similar way. The difference in redshift distribution between young and old radio sources must be due to a difference in slope of their luminosity functions, and we argue that this slope is strongly affected by the luminosity evolution of the individual sources. A luminosity evolution scenario is proposed in which GPS sources increase in luminosity and large scale radio sources decrease in luminosity with time. It is shown that such a scenario agrees with the local luminosity function of GPS galaxies.     

Quasi-Thermal Noise Diagnostics in Space Plasmas

We present the method of plasma diagnostics by quasi-thermal noise spectroscopy and show examples of application in the solar wind and the Earth's plasmasphere. Using only an electric antenna and a radio receiver, diagnostics of various space environments (magnetized or not) can be obtained in situ. Because of its accuracy, this technique can be used to cross-check other plasma sensors. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Effect of GPS Ephemeris on the Accuracy of Precise Orbit Determination of LEO Satellite-borne GPS

The satellite-borne GPS receivers dedicated to precise orbit determination are now being carried by more and more low earth orbit (LEO) satellites and the satellite-borne GPS has become one of the main means for the precise orbit determination of low earth orbit satellites. The accuracy of satellite-borne GPS precise orbit determination depends on the accuracies of the GPS ephemeris and the clock error. Based on the orbit determination function of SHORDEIII zero-difference dynamics and using the observational data obtained by the GRACE satellites for the week from 2005 August 1 to 7 as an example, three versions of GPS ephemerides (igs, igr and igu) are used to carry out orbit determination under the same conditions and to estimate the effect of the GPS ephemeris accuracy on the accuracy of orbit determination of low earth orbit satellites. Our calculated results show that the two ephemerides, igs and igr, are equivalent to each other in orbit determination accuracy (about 9.5 cm), while igu is slightly less accurate, at about 10.5 cm. The effect produced by the data of the high frequency GPS satellite clock error on the accuracy of orbit determination is 1–6 cm.     

On the radio emission of Callisto

A model of an icy surface and interior for Callisto gives a predicted thermal radio emission in good agreement with experimental radio astronomical data. The radio brightness temperature of an icy surface will not depend on wavelength. This may be a method to test icy surface hypotheses. The brightness temperatures of other satellites with icy surfaces will be equal to 200–220°K and will not depend on wavelength.     

上海天文台GPS掩星技术研究现状

简要地介绍了GPS/LEO卫星无线电掩星技术的基本原理、意义以及国际上的最近动态 ,列举了几个主要的LEO卫星计划 ;重点分析了GPS掩星探测地球大气技术中需要注意的若干问题 ,并推出可能采取的改进方案和相应的技术路线。上海天文台在GPS/LEO空基气象学中已经成功地提出 :通过通约LEO/GPS轨道方法 ,实现掩星地面观测点控制的新思路。作为一个应用实例 ,针对东中国海洋上空大气状况对中国东部经济发达的地区特别是上海地区的天气有着重要影响的背景 ,提出利用通约LEO/GPS卫星可对该地区大气实施监控。为了充分利用GPS/LEO掩星观测资源 ,上海天文台开展了振幅反演的计算方法研究 ;提出了在振幅反演中存在着无线电信号几何衰减和物理衰减两种不同的衰减机制 ,并考虑了它们的数学模型以及对反演结果的影响。简要地叙述了掩星质量因子的定义和计算方法。作为国内天文地球动力学研究中心 ,上海天文台将与国内外一些合作单位考虑建立GPS/LEO掩星技术观测处理的软件系统。作为空基GPS气象学的推广 ,还考虑进行山基和飞机载掩星观测实验 ,论证用这些方法监测局部大气剖面的可行性以及它们在国民经济和科学研究上的作用