Higher Order Ionosphere Errors at Arecibo, Millstone, and Jicamarca

N. Matteo, Y. Morton, P. Chandrasekaran, F. van Graas

Abstract:	The ionosphere is a dominant source of GPS receiver range measurement errors. High accuracy positioning and navigation applications rely on the use of dual-frequency receivers to eliminate the first order ionosphere error. Range measurements generated by dual-frequency receivers, however, retain 72% of the second order error and 51% of the third order error at the L1 frequency. The higher order ionosphere error is a function of both electron density distribution and the magnetic field vector along the GPS signal propagation path. This paper expands previous efforts by combining Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) electron density measurements, exponential decay extensions of the measured electron density profiles, the IGRF magnetic field model, and IGS TEC maps to compute the higher-order error at disparate locations equipped with ISR facilities: Arecibo, Puerto Rico; Jicamarca, Peru; and Millstone Hill, MA. Diurnal patterns, error dependency on signal angle of arrival, seasonal variations, and geomagnetic activity dependency of the errors at the radar sites are analyzed. Higher order range error is largest at the Arecibo site with code phase maxima on the order of 5cm for low elevations signals from the south, with error variance over all angles of arrival largest at Jicamarca, on the order of 6cm.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 22nd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2009) September 22 - 25, 2009 Savannah International Convention Center Savannah, GA
Pages:	2739 - 2740
Cite this article:	Matteo, N., Morton, Y., Chandrasekaran, P., van Graas, F., "Higher Order Ionosphere Errors at Arecibo, Millstone, and Jicamarca," Proceedings of the 22nd International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2009), Savannah, GA, September 2009, pp. 2739-2740.
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