Title: Investigating the effect of TEC variability on a dual-band GNSS receiver's geographic location using carrier phase measurement

Authors: Udaya Kumar Sahoo; Bijayananda Patnaik; Srinivasarao Chintagunta; Shyam Sundar Kundu; Shiv Prasad Aggarwal

Addresses: Department of Space and Atmospheric Science, NESAC, Umiam – 793103, India ' Department of ECE, NIT Raipur, Chhatisgarh – 492010, India ' Department of ECE, NIT Calicut, Kerala – 673601, India ' Department of Space and Atmospheric Science, NESAC, Umiam – 793103, India ' Department of Space and Atmospheric Science, NESAC, Umiam – 793103, India

Abstract: Satellite navigation is affected significantly by the ionospheric plasma bubbles and characterised using total electron content (TEC) of the ionosphere. To determine TEC, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based method has been prevailed. In this work, dual-band multi-constellation GNSS receivers were used to acquire the navigation signal of a satellite constellation in carrier phase mode. An experimental study was conducted in north-eastern tropical zone of India to correlate the position error of the dual-band GNSS receiver with the variability of TEC in the ionosphere. The study shows that the concentration of TEC in the ionosphere fluctuates throughout the day, viz., the peak value of TEC during morning, noon-time, and evening is 30.43 TECU, 65.37 TECU, and 28.32 TECU, respectively. At the TEC variability of 23.913 TECU during the September equinox, position accuracy of dual-band GNSS receiver was affected by 13.8477 cm, 3.3950 cm, and 4.9583 cm in latitude, longitude, and altitude, respectively.

Keywords: TEC variability; ionospheric perturbation; dual-band GNSS receiver; positioning accuracy; geospatial measurement.

DOI: 10.1504/IJICT.2024.142004

International Journal of Information and Communication Technology, 2024 Vol.25 No.4, pp.303 - 322

Received: 24 Nov 2021
Accepted: 28 Mar 2023
Published online: 07 Oct 2024 *

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