Ionospheric Effects on GPS and DGPS in Polar Regions

James Clynch, Carl Henry

Abstract:	A study was conducted to investigate the potential problems of utilizing DGPS for sn aircraft landing system in Antarctica. Two unique aspects of the polar region were studied: the potential propagation problems due to ionospheric scintillations, and the geometric effects of having many satellites in view, but all at low elevation angles. A differential system was run continuously for 9 months at McMurdo, Antarctica during 1993. This period was just after the peak of the last solar cycle. Data was taken at 1 second and analyzed on the fly to log all loss of locks. Essentially no loss of locks occurred due to ionospheric scintillations. The accuracy was as expected from simple theory. Data at South Pole station taken, at the same time by the US Geological Survey was analyzed. This was a single station and provided only statistics on ionospheric effects, not DGPS accuracies. At the pole there were significant ionospheric effects. Because of the skew of the earth’s magnet field from the spin axis, South Pole station was in the auroral region while McMurdo was in the polar cap region as far as the ionosphere is concerned. This may explain the difference in the effects at the two sites.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 7th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1994) September 20 - 23, 1994 Salt Palace Convention Center Salt Lake City, UT
Pages:	1579 - 1587
Cite this article:	Clynch, James, Henry, Carl, "Ionospheric Effects on GPS and DGPS in Polar Regions," Proceedings of the 7th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GPS 1994), Salt Lake City, UT, September 1994, pp. 1579-1587.
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