Auroral Monitoring Index Using a Network of GNSS Receivers

R. Tiwari, A. Ahmed, H.J. Strangeways and S. Dlay, Knut Stanley Jacobsen, William Roberts, Jim Wild

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	The Earth’s ionized atmosphere, above 100 km altitude, and at high latitudes, experiences auroral storms driven by space weather activity. Aurorae, visible in the form of dynamic light effects, coincide with time-varying ionospheric electron density irregularities and magnetic storms. When satellite signals pass through such irregularities, rapid random fluctuations in their received phase and amplitude are observed at ground-based receivers. This is a phenomenon termed ionospheric scintillation and it can be severe enough to cause loss of availability for a number of the GNSS applications. There are also indications that ionospheric scintillation can also influence the Ionosphere-Free linear combination of carrier phase observables used in high-precision ION GNSS 2015, USA 2 positioning, leading to degraded quality of GNSS measurements in surveying and scientific applications. In this study, we developed the auroral monitoring index (AMI) using the existing network of NMA GNSS receivers situated at European high latitudes (55? N to 75? N) which allows the monitoring and modeling the auroral effect on GNSS receivers. Further, the derived index was used for mitigating ionospheric scintillation effects during auroral storms. The auroral activities and AMI were further evaluated with scintillation activities for strong geomagnetic storm observed in 2014-15 and correlated with the phase scintillation index.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 28th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2015) September 14 - 18, 2015 Tampa Convention Center Tampa, Florida
Pages:	3779 - 3786
Cite this article:	Tiwari, R., Ahmed, A., Strangeways, H.J., Dlay, S., Jacobsen, Knut Stanley, Roberts, William, Wild, Jim, "Auroral Monitoring Index Using a Network of GNSS Receivers," Proceedings of the 28th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS+ 2015), Tampa, Florida, September 2015, pp. 3779-3786.
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