Single-frequency Ionospheric Profiles from the CANX-2 Nano-satellite

Michael Swab, Kyle O'Keefe, Susan Skone

Abstract:	The objective of the research presented in this paper is to show that single frequency ionospheric profiles can be obtained using GPS radio occultation techniques with commercial off-the-shelf hardware. The platform used in support of this objective is the CanX-2 nanosatellite. Limitations with respect to the antenna’s field of view and poor signal quality are overcome with the use of the code-minus-carrier observable, TEC calibration and a novel smoothing technique. All techniques are validated through comparison of the corresponding electron density profiles to optimized data assumed to be the best possible representations of the true ionospheric signal. This assumption is substantiated through application of the optimization procedure to raw COSMIC data and comparison to COSMIC final product. The research performed with CanX-2 represents 2 orders of magnitude decrease in cost over similar work conducted by larger-budget and larger-scope programs.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 25th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2012) September 17 - 21, 2012 Nashville Convention Center, Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, TN
Pages:	2007 - 2021
Cite this article:	Swab, Michael, O'Keefe, Kyle, Skone, Susan, "Single-frequency Ionospheric Profiles from the CANX-2 Nano-satellite," Proceedings of the 25th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2012), Nashville, TN, September 2012, pp. 2007-2021.
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