[IGSMAIL-2073] Re
L.
L.
Thu Nov 19 01:59:34 PST 1998
IGS Electronic Mail Thu Nov 19 1:59:34 PST 1998 Message Number 2073
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Author: L. Wanninger
Subject: Re: Rogue Ionosphere Problem
Dear Colleagues,
In IGS Message 2071 Tim Springer and Markus Rothacher described TurboRogue
data loss due to the current ionospheric conditions.
A closer look at some of the data files of equatorial stations from
November 8, 1998 (DoY 312) reveals that in the equatorial region the
vertical Total Electron Content (TEC) reached a maximum of around
80 TEC units (TECU) and that no small-scale ionospheric disturbances
occurred on this day. Due to the equatorial anomalies the maximum rate
of change of slant TEC exceeded the high value of 5 TECU/minute for
some low elevated GPS satellites.
In general, this kind of ionospheric condition does not cause any tracking
difficulties of geodetic or navigation GPS receivers. Therefore, it can
be assumed that the observed data loss is really a problem of a
specific receiver (or firmware) version.
Some RINEX-converters or software packages misinterpret a high rate
of change of slant TEC as cycle slips. Since the rate of change of slant
TEC under the current ionospheric conditions in the equatorial region can
exceed a carelessly selected cycle slip detection threshold for a long
period of time (hours), all observations are cycle slip flagged and finally
disregarded.
The "real" ionospheric difficulties caused by severe small-scale ionospheric
disturbances which affect the GPS-receiver signal tracking ability have not
been reported yet in this solar cycle. They are still ahead of us and will
be most severe in the equatorial region between local sun set and local
midnight. Their occurrence has a distinct seasonal/longitudinal
dependence.
[Mailed From: Lambert Wanninger <wanning at Rcs1.urz.tu-dresden.de>]
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