Flight Test Evaluation of INS-Aided GPS Tracking Performance under Equatorial Ionospheric Plasma Bubbles

T. Tsujii, T. Fujiwara, T. Kubota

Abstract:	Ionospheric anomaly is one of the major error sources which affect the GPS performance. It is well known that the storm enhanced density (SED) associated with a severe magnetic storm causes a large special gradient of the ionospheric delay. However, in equatorial region, effects of ionospheric plasma bubbles are of great interest since they are quite common phenomenon especially in the period of high solar activity. The plasma bubble causes a large spatial gradient of GPS ionospheric delay, which may degrade the differential GPS performance. Also, ionospheric scintillation associated with bubbles would result in GPS signal loss. These effects could be threats for a safety-of-life technology such as aircraft precision approach. Therefore, in order to evaluate the GPS performance for aviation (e.g. GBAS), flight tests were conducted to collect GPS data under the ionosphere plasma bubbles. In this paper, the flight test configurations are introduced and preliminary analysis results of GPS data under bubbles are given first. Then, INS Doppler aiding is carried out by using digital IF data with various settings of phase locked loop. Some improvement of tracking performance is shown in this paper, and the updated results will be given in the meeting.
Published in:	Proceedings of the ION 2013 Pacific PNT Meeting April 23 - 25, 2013 Marriott Waikiki Beach Resort & Spa Honolulu, Hawaii
Pages:	937 - 945
Cite this article:	Tsujii, T., Fujiwara, T., Kubota, T., "Flight Test Evaluation of INS-Aided GPS Tracking Performance under Equatorial Ionospheric Plasma Bubbles," Proceedings of the ION 2013 Pacific PNT Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, April 2013, pp. 937-945.
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