Abstract
This study carries out a quantitative analysis of the performance of ionospheric tomography in the topside ionosphere, utilizing data of October 2011 collected from 260 Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) stations in the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China. This tomographic reconstruction with a resolution of 2° in latitude, 2° in longitude and 20 km in altitude has more than 70 % of voxels traversed by GPS raypaths and is able to provide reliable bottom parts of ionospheric profiles. Compared with the observations measured by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) satellites (F16, F17 and F18) at an altitude of 830–880 km, the results show that there is an overestimation in the reconstructed plasma density at the DMSP altitude, and the reconstruction is better during daytime than nighttime. In addition, the reconstruction at nighttime also indicates a solar activity and latitudinal dependence. In summary, with respect to DMSP measurements, the daytime bias is on average from −0.32 × 105/cm3 to −0.28 × 105/cm3, while the nighttime bias is between −0.37 × 105/cm3 and −0.24 × 105/cm3, and the standard deviation at daytime and at nighttime is, respectively, 0.082 × 105/cm3 to 0.244 × 105/cm3 and 0.086 × 105/cm3 to 0.428 × 105/cm3. This study suggests that vertical ionospheric profiles from other sources, such as ionosondes or GNSS occultation satellites, should be incorporated into ground-based GNSS topside tomographic studies.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson PC (2001) A survey of surface charging events on the DMSP spacecraft in LEO. In: Proceedings of the 6th Spacecraft Charging Technology Conference, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, pp 331–336
Andreeva E, Franke S, Yeh K, Kunitsyn V (2000) Some features of the equatorial anomaly revealed by ionospheric tomography. Geophys Res Lett 27(16):2465–2468. doi:10.1029/1999GL003725
Aragon-Angel A, Liou YA, Lee CC, Reinisch B, Hernández-Pajares M, Juan M, Sanz J (2011) Improvement of retrieved FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC electron densities validated by ionospheric sounder measurements at Jicamarca. Radio Sci. doi:10.1029/2010RS004578
Bilitza D, Altadill D, Zhang Y, Mertens C, Truhlik V, Richards P, McKinnell L-A, Reinisch B (2014) The international reference ionosphere 2012—a model of international collaboration. J Space Weather Space Clim 4:A07. doi:10.1051/swsc/2014004
Bust G, Mitchell CN (2008) History, current state, and future directions of ionospheric imaging. Rev Geophys. doi:10.1029/2006RG000212
Bust G, Crowley G, Garner T, Gaussiran T, Meggs RW, Mitchell CN, Spencer PS, Yin P, Zapfe B (2007) Four-dimensional GPS imaging of space weather storms. Space Weather 5(2):S02003. doi:10.1029/2006SW000237
Chartier AT, Smith ND, Mitchell CN, Jackson DR, Patilongo PJ (2012) The use of ionosondes in GPS ionospheric tomography at low latitudes. J Geophys Res Space Phys. doi:10.1029/2012JA018054
Garner T, Taylor B, Gaussiran T, Coley W, Hairston M, Rich F (2010) Statistical behavior of the topside electron density as determined from DMSP observations: a probabilistic climatology. J Geophys Res Space Phys. doi:10.1029/2009JA014695
Huang X, Reinisch BW, Bilitza D, Raytheon I (2002) Electon density profiles of the topside ionosphere. Ann Geophys 45:125–130
Jin S, Park J, Wang J, Choi B, Park P (2006) Electron density profiles derived from ground-based GPS observations. J Navig 59(03):395–401
Jin S, Luo O, Park P (2008) GPS observations of the ionospheric F2-layer behavior during the 20th November 2003 geomagnetic storm over South Korea. J Geodesy 82(12):883–892
Krankowski A, Zakharenkova I, Krypiak-Gregorczyk A, Shagimuratov II, Wielgosz P (2011) Ionospheric electron density observed by FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC over the European region and validated by ionosonde data. J Geod 85(12):949–964
Lei J, Syndergaard S, Burns AG, Solomon SC, Wang W, Zeng Z, Roble RG, Wu Q, Kuo YH, Holt JM (2007) Comparison of COSMIC ionospheric measurements with ground-based observations and model predictions: preliminary results. J Geophys Res Space Phys (1978–2012) 112:A7
Li H, Yuan Y, Li Z, Huo X, Yan W (2012) Ionospheric electron concentration imaging using combination of LEO satellite data with ground-based GPS observations over China. Geosci Remote Sens IEEE Trans 50(5):1728–1735. doi:10.1109/TGRS.2011.2168964
Liu L, Wan W, Yue X, Zhao B, Ning B, Zhang M-L (2007) The dependence of plasma density in the topside ionosphere on the solar activity level. Ann Geophys 25(6):1337–1343. doi:10.5194/angeo-25-1337-2007
Nava B, Coïsson P, Radicella S (2008) A new version of the NeQuick ionosphere electron density model. J Atmos Solar Terr Phys 70(15):1856–1862
Pokhotelov D, Mitchell C, Spencer P, Hairston M, Heelis R (2008) Ionospheric storm time dynamics as seen by GPS tomography and in situ spacecraft observations. J Geophys Res. doi:10.1029/2008JA013109
Pokhotelov D, Jayachandran P, Mitchell CN, MacDougall JW, Denton MH (2011) GPS tomography in the polar cap: comparison with ionosondes and in situ spacecraft data. GPS Solut 15(1):79–87. doi:10.1007/s10291-010-0170-z
Raymund TD, Austen J, Franke S, Liu C, Klobuchar J, Stalker J (1990) Application of computerized tomography to the investigation of ionospheric structures. Radio Sci 25(5):771–789
Rich F (1994) Users Guide for the Topside Ionospheric Plasma Monitor (SSIES, SSIES-2 and SSIES-3) on Spacecraft of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, Volume 1: Technical Description. Phillips Lab Hanscom AFB, MA
Schreiner WS, Sokolovskiy SV, Rocken C, Hunt DC (1999) Analysis and validation of GPS/MET radio occultation data in the ionosphere. Radio Sci 34(4):949–966
Sibanda P, McKinnell L (2011) Topside ionospheric vertical electron density profile reconstruction using GPS and ionosonde data: possibilities for South Africa. In: Annales Geophysicae, vol 2. Copernicus GmbH, pp 229–236
Stankov SM, Jakowski N, Heise S, Muhtarov P, Kutiev I, Warnant R (2003) A new method for reconstruction of the vertical electron density distribution in the upper ionosphere and plasmasphere. J Geophys Res Space Phys. doi:10.1029/2002JA009570
Tsai L-C, Liu C-H, Hsiao T-Y (2009) Profiling of ionospheric electron density based on FormoSat-3/COSMIC data: results from the intense observation period experiment. Terr Atmos Ocean Sci 20(1):181–191. doi:10.3319/TAO.2007.12.19.01(F3C)
Van de Kamp MMJL (2013) Medium-scale 4-D ionospheric tomography using a dense GPS network. Ann Geophys. doi:10.5194/angeo-31-75-2013
Wen D, Yuan Y, Ou J (2007) Monitoring the three-dimensional ionospheric electron density distribution using GPS observations over China. J Earth Syst Sci 116(3):235–244. doi:10.1007/s12040-007-0023-5
Xue J, Song S, Zhu W (2013) Assessment of CODE GIM Over China. In: Proceedings of the ION 2013 Pacific PNT Meeting, Honolulu, Hawaii, pp 706–722
Yin P, Mitchell C, Spencer P, Foster J (2004) Ionospheric electron concentration imaging using GPS over the USA during the storm of July 2000. Geophys Res Lett 31(12):L12806. doi:10.1029/2004GL019899
Yin P, Mitchell CN, Alfonsi L, Pinnock M, Spencer P, De Franceschi G, Romano V, Newell P, Sarti P, Negusini M (2009) Imaging of the Antarctic ionosphere: experimental results. J Atmos Solar Terr Phys 71(17):1757–1765. doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2009.09.014
Yizengaw E, Moldwin M, Dyson PL, Essex E (2007) Using tomography of GPS TEC to routinely determine ionospheric average electron density profiles. J Atmos Solar Terr Phys 69(3):314–321. doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2006.07.023
Yizengaw E, Moldwin M, Galvan D, Iijima B, Komjathy A, Mannucci A (2008) Global plasmaspheric TEC and its relative contribution to GPS TEC. J Atmos Solar Terr Phys 70(11):1541–1548. doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2008.04.022
Zhao B, Wan W, Liu L, Yue X, Venkatraman S (2005) Statistical characteristics of the total ion density in the topside ionosphere during the period 1996–2004 using empirical orthogonal function (EOF) analysis. Ann Geophys 23(12):3615–3631
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 10603011, 11273048, 41474131, 11403083), Shanghai Natural Science Foundation (Grant Nos. 13ZR1446900) and the National Key Special Program of China. Also, the authors would like to thank data center of the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China and the international GNSS Monitoring & Assessment Service (iGMAS) of China for providing GNSS data, the IGS for making the GPS data available, the NOAA’s National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC) for providing the DMSP SSIES data and the COSMIC Data Analysis and Archived Centre (CDAAC) for providing the COSMIC data. The anonymous reviewers are thanked for their constructive comments which helped greatly in improving the paper.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Yang, Z., Song, S., Jiao, W. et al. Ionospheric tomography based on GNSS observations of the CMONOC: performance in the topside ionosphere. GPS Solut 21, 363–375 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-016-0526-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-016-0526-0