Ionospheric scintillation effects on GNSS: monitoring and data treatment development

• Main Author: Romano, Vincenzo
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Arctic; Norway; Svalbard
• Online Access: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33909/; https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/33909/1/Vincenzo%20Romano%20PhD%20THESIS%20FINAL%20Revised%203.pdf

The increasing importance of satellite navigation technologies in modern society implies that a deeper knowledge and a reliable monitoring of the scintillation phenomena are essential to warn and forecast information to the end users and system designers. In fact, warnings, alerts and forecasting of ionospheric conditions may wisely tune the development of GNSS-based services to obtain the necessary levels of accuracy, integrity, and immediacy for reliable life-critical applications. The PhD research project is within the framework of the longstanding NGI-INGV collaboration, increasingly consolidated in the framework of many international projects. NGI pioneered GPS ionospheric scintillation monitoring in Northern Europe with GISTM (GPS ionospheric scintillation and TEC monitor, Van Dierendonck et al., 1993; Van Dierendonck, 2001) receivers. Between June 2001 and December 2003, four units were installed in the UK and Norway mainland, covering the geographic latitudes from 53° N to 70° N. Data was stored and analysed, focusing on statistical analyses and impact for GNSS users (Rodrigues et al., 2004, Aquino et al., 2005a, Aquino et al., 2005b). These units were decommissioned in 2004 and, then, re-deployed together with additional new receivers, in UK, Norway, Italy and Cyprus. An additional station was deployed by the NGI in Dourbes, Belgium (in collaboration with the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium) between 2006 and 2011. INGV leads the ISACCO (Ionospheric Scintillation Arctic Campaign Coordinated Observations) project in the Arctic, started in 2003, in which frame the management of three GISTM receivers in Svalbard (De Franceschi et al., 2006) and another two at European mid-latitudes, Chania (Greece) and Lampedusa (Italy), is currently undertaken. The PhD research project contributed to the reinforcement of the NGI-INGV GISTM network developing monitoring, data management and quality tools. Such activities have supported the continuity and the control of the receiving stations, as well as the access ...