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The storm-time assessment of GNSS-SBAS performance within low latitude African region using a testbed-like platform

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Abstract

A Satellite Based Augmentation System (SBAS) is designed to improve Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) in terms of integrity, accuracy, availability and continuity. The main limitation to SBAS performance optimization is the ionosphere, and this is more critical in low latitude. During geomagnetically disturbed periods the role of storm-time winds is important because they modify the atmospheric composition toward low latitudes. An index of ionospheric disturbance, the relative percentage of deviation of the vertical Total Electron Content (TEC) from the quiet level (DvTEC) at each station was evaluated to study positive and negative phases of the geomagnetic storms. The rate of change of TEC index (ROTI) over all the GNSS stations was estimated to evaluate equatorial ionospheric gradients and irregularities. From the study it is observed that the positive deviations are more frequent than negative ones. The availability map, which is the mean of the combine Vertical Protection Level (VPL) and Horizontal Protection Level (HPL) are used for the SBAS performance. The cases of moderate and minor storms studied during the months of July and October 2013 showed that the SBAS system performance during the disturbed periods depends on the local time in which the storm occurs, geographic longitude and other phenomena that need further study. During the storm-time conditions considered, three out of seven geomagnetic storms indicated good SBAS performance and exceed monthly average of the availability map, three geomagnetic storms reduced the system performance below monthly average while one does not have effect on SBAS system performance in respect to monthly average. The present study indicates ROTI as a better proxy than geomagnetic indices for the assessment of storm-time effects on GNSS-SBAS performance.

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Acknowledgements

This paper contains results obtained during the “training through research” activities of the TREGA Project financed by the European Union under the Contribution Agreement between The European Commission and the ICTP. The authors are grateful to the office of the surveyor general of the Federal Government of Nigeria network (www.nignet.net), the administrator of IGS (https://igscb.jpl.nasa.gov), AFREF (www.afrefdata.org) and SONEL (www.sonel.org) networks for preserving the GNSS data and make it publicly available for scientific community. We also thank the Editor, Associate Editor and all the anonymous reviewers for their objective assessment of the paper and their valuable suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. T/ICT4D, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy

    O. E. Abe, C. Paparini, R. H. Ngaya, X. Otero Villamide, S. M. Radicella & B. Nava

  2. Department of Physics, Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria

    O. E. Abe

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  1. O. E. Abe
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  2. C. Paparini
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  3. R. H. Ngaya
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  5. S. M. Radicella
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  6. B. Nava
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Correspondence to O. E. Abe.

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Abe, O.E., Paparini, C., Ngaya, R.H. et al. The storm-time assessment of GNSS-SBAS performance within low latitude African region using a testbed-like platform. Astrophys Space Sci 362, 170 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-017-3150-8

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