Scintillation Parameter Estimation Using Unmodified Professional GNSS Receivers: A Feasibility Study

Dimitrios Symeonidis, Joaquim Fortuny-Guasch, Cillian O'Driscoll, Angel Belenguer Martinez

Abstract:	Solar flares are X-rays and UV radiations emitted by the sun which can affect both terrestrial and satellite communications when reaching the Earth's ionosphere. In particular GNSS signals can be affected by scintillation phenomena in the ionosphere which can degrade the positioning/timing accuracy of a GNSS receiver. The likelihood of disruptive ionospheric events increases dramatically when the sun reaches the peak of its activity, involving frequent X-ray and UV emissions. Various efforts have been made to measure these effects, usually using dedicated instruments. More specifically professional receivers have been modified to provide the GPS correlator outputs that -in turn- can be used to compute the S4 (van Dierendonck et al. 1993), one of the main parameters describing the intensity of ionospheric scintillation. This requires firmware changes in professional GPS receivers, increasing notably their cost. In this paper we investigate the feasibility of using commercial and software GPS receivers to estimate the scintillation parameters, rather than dedicated, custom designs. The final goal is to obtain a cost effective scintillation monitor that can be easily deployed and used for determining the severity of ionospheric activities. The output of commercial receivers, without firmware modifications, is used to compute the S4 parameter and provide continuous monitoring of the ionospheric activity.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2011) September 20 - 23, 2011 Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon Portland, OR
Pages:	2580 - 2587
Cite this article:	Symeonidis, Dimitrios, Fortuny-Guasch, Joaquim, O'Driscoll, Cillian, Martinez, Angel Belenguer, "Scintillation Parameter Estimation Using Unmodified Professional GNSS Receivers: A Feasibility Study," Proceedings of the 24th International Technical Meeting of the Satellite Division of The Institute of Navigation (ION GNSS 2011), Portland, OR, September 2011, pp. 2580-2587.
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