GPS monitoring of small-scale fluctuations of total electron content of ionosphere

Abstract

It has been substantiated that the positioning accuracy of unmanned aerial vehicles based on satellite radio navigation systems can be significantly deteriorated at Arctic latitudes upon generation of intensive small-scale ionospheric irregularities. Thus, it would be reasonable to monitor small-scale fluctuations of total electron content of ionosphere using double-frequency GPStation-6 receiver. The necessity has been substantiated and the following approaches to modification of this receiver have been developed: 1) combination of code measurements with phase ones; 2) increase in discretization frequency of measurement of total electron content of ionosphere from 1 Hz to 50 Hz; 3) separation of small-scale fluctuations of total electron content from fluctuations of other scales using the Butterworth digital filter of the 6th order; 4) predications of statistic properties of small-scale fluctuations of total electron content of ionosphere