HIGH-LATITUDE MEASUREMENTS OF IONOSPHERIC SCINTILLATION USING THE NSTB

Jonathan Nichols, Andrew Hansen, Todd Walter, and Per Enge

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	Recent analysis of GPS data collected by the Federal Aviation Administration’s FAA’s National Satellite Test Bed NSTB indicates that several occurrences of ionospheric scintillation were observed over Alaska on August 6 and 27, 1998. These events coincided with magnetic storms documented by the National Geophysical Data Center. During this period, a specialized L1 GPS receiver designed to monitor scintillation was colocated with the NSTB reference station at Fairbanks, Alaska. This configuration provides data from two different types of receivers: codeless dual-frequency reference measurements survey grade and high-bandwidth scintillation monitoring. The primary goal of this investigation was to determine the effect of scintillation on both single- and dual-frequency users in the auroral zone. The work included estimating the correlation between measured scintillation events and GPS receiver performance. Additionally, the worst-case spatial extent of the scintillation phenomenon was estimated by analyzing the distribution of highly active ionospheric pierce points at the F-layer 350 km altitude.
Published in:	NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 47, Number 2
Pages:	112 - 120
Cite this article:	Nichols, Jonathan, Hansen, Andrew, Walter, Todd, Enge, Per, "HIGH-LATITUDE MEASUREMENTS OF IONOSPHERIC SCINTILLATION USING THE NSTB", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 47, No. 2, Summer 2000, pp. 112-120.
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