Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Ionospheric modeling'

The research presented in this thesis aims to develop ionospheric corrections for calibration of future low frequency radio interferometers. GNSS data from ground stations close to the MRO were used to produce a model of the ionosphere. Comparisons of this model with ionospheric parameters derived from the MWA observations show good agreement. The installation of new GNSS stations in the vicinity of MRO would allow ionospheric modelling with higher spatial resolution.

Ionospheric scintillation is a phenomenon that occurs daily, especially around the equatorial region, during the summer solstice after the sunset, affecting radio signals that propagate through the ionosphere. Depending on the temporal and spatial situation, ionospheric scintillation can represent a problem in the availability and precision of the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). This work is concerned with the statistical modeling and evaluation of the impact of amplitude scintillation on the performance of Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers. In this work the use of ?-? model is proposed to represent the scintillation phenomenon affecting GPS receiver performance. The use of ?-? is also extended for second order statistics. Such a model is compared to a set of experimental data obtained in São José dos Campos, near the peak of the Equatorial Anomaly, during high solar fux conditions, between the months of December 2001 and January 2002. The results obtained with the proposed ?-? model fitted quite well with the experimental data and performed better than two of the widely used models, namely Nakagami-m and Rice. The proposed model requires the estimation of two parameters, instead of a single one used by the models of Nakagami-m and Rice. To facilitate its use, for the situations in which no set of experimental data is available, this work presents parameterized equations for calculating the two parameters required by the ?-? model. Based upon the fact that the proposed model performs better than the one proposed by Nakagami-m, the present investigation derives a model to estimate the carrier and code tracking loop errors on GPS receivers. Such a model not only performed better than Nakagami';s, but also is valid for a wider range of scintillation.

A full solar eclipse is going to be visible from a range of states in the contiguous United States on August 21, 2017. Since the atmosphere of the Earth is charged by the sun, the blocking of the sunlight by the moon may cause short term changes to the atmosphere, such as density and temperature alterations. There are many ways to measure these changes, one of these being ionospheric scintillation. Ionospheric scintillation is rapid amplitude and phase fluctuations of signals passing through the ionosphere caused by electron density irregularities in the ionosphere. At mid-latitudes, scintillation is not as common of an occurrence as it is in equatorial or high-altitude regions. One of the theories that this paper looks into is the possibility of the solar eclipse producing an instability in the ionosphere that will cause the mid-latitude region to experience scintillations that would not normally be present. Instabilities that could produce scintillation are reviewed and altered further to model similar conditions to those that might occur during the solar eclipse. From this, the satellites that are being used are discuses, as is hardware and software tools were developed to record the scintillation measurements. Although this work was accomplished before the eclipse occurred, measurement tools were developed and verified along with generating a model that predicted if the solar eclipse will produce an instability large enough to cause scintillation for high frequency satellite downlinks.
Master of Science

Complex magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling mechanisms result in high latitude irregularities that are difficult to characterize. Until recently, the polar and auroral irregularities remained largely unexplored. Inadequate infrastructures to deploy and maintain advanced dual frequency Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers at high latitudes, especially in the Southern hemisphere, makes such an investigation a formidable task. Additionally, the complicated geometry of the magnetic field lines in these regions pose challenges in designing global scintillation models. This dissertation takes some steps towards bridging these gaps while advancing the state-of-the-art high latitude irregularity studies. In the first part of this dissertation, we briefly describe the Autonomous Adaptive Low-Power Instrument Platforms (AAL-PIP) experimental setup. These space science instrument platforms are being deployed in remote locations in Antarctica, improving the coverage of GNSS data availability. We explain in detail the method developed for analyzing high rate (typically 50 Hz) data from a novel dual-frequency Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver called Connected Autonomous Space Environment Sensor (CASES). We also report first observations from CASES at high latitudes. From this study, we established that CASES can be reliably used as a science grade GPS scintillation monitor. Following this, a novel three dimensional (3D) electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation model called "Satellite-beacon Ionospheric-scintillation Global Model of the upper Atmosphere" (SIGMA) was developed to simulate GNSS scintillations on ground. GPS scintillation simulations of significantly high fidelity are now possible with this model. While the model is global, it is the first such model which accounts for the complicated geometry of magnetic field lines at high latitudes. Using SIGMA, a sensitivity study is presented to understand the effect of geographical, propagation and irregularity parameters on the phase scintillations. This allows us to reduce the dimensionality of the design space while solving the inverse problem described next. In the final part, we utilize the tools developed for GPS measurement analysis and SIGMA to characterize the high latitude irregularities. We propose an inverse modeling technique to derive irregularity parameters by comparing the high rate (50 Hz) GNSS observations to the modeled outputs. We consider interhemispheric high latitude datasets for this investigation. We also implement SIGMA for analyzing a substorm event observed by AAL-PIP stations. One of the unique contributions of this research is to demonstrate that such an inverse modeling technique can form a basis in the investigation of the ionospheric irregularities. Moreover, availability of ample auxiliary data from multi-instrument observations can assist in this quest of understanding the physics of high latitude irregularities and their generation mechanisms.
Ph. D.

This dissertation focuses on determining the vertical electron content distribution in low and high vertical resolution from ground-based and LEO on board GNSS data and improving the knowledge of ionosphere climatology in northern mid-latitude and polar regions. The novelty is summarized in the following four aspects: The first contribution is to propose a new ionospheric mapping function concept - Barcelona Ionospheric Mapping Function (BIMF), in order to improve STEC (Slant Total Electron Content) conversion accuracy from any given VTEC (Vertical Total Electron Content) model. BIMF is based on the climatic modeling of the VTEC fraction in the second layer - µ2, which is the byproduct of UQRG generated by UPC. The first implementation of BIMF is BIMF-nml for the northern mid-latitudes, where the latitudinal variation of µ2 is neglected. µ2 is modeled as function of date and local time. From the user’s perspective, BIMF is the linear combination of µ2 and the standard ionospheric mapping function, and only needs 41 constant coefficients, making BIMF achieve the simplicity for application. The good performance has been demonstrated in the dSTEC assessment for different IGSGIMs: UQRG, CODG and JPLG. The second contribution is to confirm the capability of UQRG GIMs to detect representative ionospheric features in polar regions through six case studies, including TOI (Tongue of Ionization), trough, flux transfer event, theta-aurora, ionospheric convection patterns and storm enhanced density. The long-term VTEC and µ2 data provide valuable databases for studying the morphology and climatology of polar ionospheric phenomena. The unsupervised clustering results of normalized VTEC distribution show that TOI and polar cap patches exhibit an annual dependence, i.e. most TOI and patches occurring in the North Hemisphere winter and the South Hemisphere summer. The third contribution is to propose a hybrid method - AVHIRO (the Abel-VaryChap Hybrid modeling from topside Incomplete RO data), to solve an ill-posed rank-deficient problem in the Abel electron density retrieval. This work is driven by the future EUMETSAT Polar System 2nd Generation, which provides truncated ionospheric RO data, only below impact heights of 500 km, in order to guarantee a full data gathering of the neutral part. AVHIRO takes advantage of one Linear Vary-Chap model, where the scale height increases linearly with altitude above the F2 layer peak, and uses Powell search to solve the full electron densities, ambiguity term, and four parameters of the Vary-Chap model simultaneously, taking into account the nonlinear interactions between the unknown parameters. The fourth contribution is to take advantage of the geometry brought by combining DORIS, ground-based Galileo, ground-based, LEO-POD and vessel-based GPS data and ingest the multi-source dual-frequency carrier phase measurements into the tomographic model to improve the GIM VTEC estimation precision. The impact of adding each type of measurements, which are Galileo data, vessel-based GPS data, DORIS and LEO-POD GPS data, to ground-based GPS data on GIM product is examined according to two complementing evaluation criteria, JASON-3 VTEC comparison and GPS dSTEC test. This study proves the expected better GIM performance by new data ingestion into tomographic model, which is a successful step forward from conception to initial experimental validation.
electrones en resolución vertical baja y alta a partir de medidas GNSS terrestres y a bordo de satélites de órbita baja (LEO), además de utilizar medidas GNSS desde buques y medidas DORIS, además de mejorar el conocimiento de la climatología de la ionosfera en las regiones polares y en latitudes medias del hemisferio norte. Las contribuciones se pueden resumir en los siguientes cuatro aspectos: La primera contribución consiste en proponer un nuevo concepto de función de mapeo ionosférico: la función de mapeo ionosférico de Barcelona (BIMF), con el fin de mejorar la precisión de conversión de STEC (contenido total de electrones inclinado) a partir de cualquier modelo de VTEC (contenido total de electrones vertical). BIMF se basa en el modelado climático de la fracción VTEC en la segunda capa - μ2, que es el subproducto de UQRG generado por UPC. La primera implementación de BIMF es BIMF-nml para las latitudes medias del hemisferio norte. μ2 se modela en función del dia y la hora local. Desde la perspectiva del usuario, BIMF es la combinación lineal de μ2 y la función de mapeo ionosférico estándar, y solo necesita 41 coeficientes constantes, lo que hace que BIMF sea facilmente aplicable. Su buen comportamiento se demostró en la evaluación dSTEC para diferentes IGS GIM: UQRG, CODG y JPLG. La segunda contribución se centró en confirmar la capacidad de los GIM UQRG para detectar características ionosféricas representativas en regiones polares a través de seis estudios de casos, que incluyen lenguas de ionización (TOI), depresión de ionización en forma de canal, sucesos de transferencia de flujo, theta-aurora, patrones de convección ionosférica y densidad aumentada durante tormentas geomagnéticas. Los datos a largo plazo de VTEC y μ2 proporcionan valiosas bases de datos para estudiar la morfología y climatología de los fenómenos ionosféricos polares. Los resultados de agrupamiento no supervisados de la distribución normalizada de VTEC muestran que los TOI y los parches en los casquetes polares exhiben una dependencia anual, es decir, la mayoría de los TOI y parches ocurren en el invierno del Hemisferio Norte y el verano del Hemisferio Sur. La tercera contribución ha consistido en proponer un método híbrido: AVHIRO (el modelo híbrido Abel-VaryChap a partir de datos de RO incompletos en la parte superior), para resolver un problema de rango deficiente en la recuperación de la densidad electrónica con el modelo de Abel. Este trabajo está motivado por el futuro sistema polar EUMETSAT de segunda generación, que proporciona datos truncados de RO ionosférica, sólo por debajo de las alturas de impacto de 500 km, con el fin de garantizar una recopilación completa de medidas de la parte neutra. AVHIRO aprovecha un modelo Linear Vary-Chap, donde la altura de la escala aumenta linealmente con la altitud por encima del pico de la capa F2, y utiliza la búsqueda Powell para resolver las densidades completas de electrones, el término de ambig ¨ uedad y cuatro parámetros del modelo Vary-Chap simultáneamente, teniendo en cuenta las interacciones no lineales entre los parámetros desconocidos. La cuarta contribución es aprovechar la geometría aportada por la combinación de datos GPS DORIS, Galileo en tierra, LEO-POD y en barco, e incorporar las mediciones de la fase de la portadora de doble frecuencia de múltiples fuentes en el modelo tomográfico para mejorar la precisión de estimación de GIM VTEC. El impacto de agregar cada tipo de mediciones, que son datos de Galileo, datos de GPS basados en embarcaciones, datos de GPS DORIS y LEO-POD, a datos de GPS terrestres en productos GIM se examina de acuerdo con dos criterios de evaluación complementarios, comparación con VTEC[JASON-3] y con dSTEC[GPS]. Este estudio demuestra el mejor rendimiento esperado de GIM por la nueva ingesta de datos en el modelo tomográfico, que es un exitoso paso adelante desde la concepción hasta la validación experimental inicial.

ABSTRACT LOCAL MODELING OF THE IONOSPHERIC VERTICAL TOTAL ELECTRON CONTENT (VTEC) USING PARTICLE FILTER Aghakarimi, Armin M.Sc., Department of Geodetic and Geographic Information Technologies Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Mahmut Onur Karslioglu September 2012, 98 pages Ionosphere modeling is an important field of current studies because of its influences on the propagation of the electromagnetic signals. Among the various methods of obtaining ionospheric information, Global Positioning System (GPS) is the most prominent one because of extensive stations distributed all over the world. There are several studies in the literature related to the modeling of the ionosphere in terms of Total Electron Content (TEC). However, most of these studies investigate the ionosphere in the global and regional scales. On the other hand, complex dynamic of the ionosphere requires further studies in the local structure of the TEC distribution. In this work, Particle filter has been used for the investigation of local character of the ionosphere VTEC. Besides, standard Kalman filter as an effective method for optimal state estimation is applied to the same data sets to compare the corresponding results with results of Particle filter. The comparison shows that Particle filter indicates better performance than the standard Kalman filter especially during the geomagnetic storm. MATLAB©
R2011 software has been used for programing all processes and algorithms of the study.

The mid-latitude ionosphere is more complicated than previously thought, as it includes many different scales of wave-like structures. Recent studies reveal that the mid-latitude ionospheric irregularities are less understood due to lack of models and observations that can explain the characteristics of the observed wave structures. Since temperature and density gradients are a persistent feature in the mid-latitude ionosphere near the plasmapause, the drift mode growth rate at short wavelengths may explain the mid-latitude decameter-scale ionospheric irregularities observed by the Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN). In the context of this dissertation, we focus on investigating the plasma waves responsible for the mid-latitude ionospheric irregularities and studying their influence on Global Positioning System (GPS) scintillations. First, the physical mechanism of the Temperature Gradient Instability (TGI), which is a strong candidate for producing mid-latitude irregularities, is proposed. The electro- static dispersion relation for TGI is extended into the kinetic regime appropriate for High- Frequency (HF) radars by including Landau damping, finite gyro-radius effects, and tem- perature anisotropy. The kinetic dispersion relation of the Gradient Drift Instability (GDI) including finite ion gyro-radius effects is also solved to consider decameter-scale waves gen- eration. The TGI and GDI calculations are obtained over a broad set of parameter regimes to underscore limitations in fluid theory for short wavelengths and to provide perspective on the experimental observations. Joint measurements by the Millstone Hill Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) and the Su- perDARN HF radar located at Wallops Island, Virginia have identified the presence of decameter-scale electron density irregularities that have been proposed to be responsible for low-velocity Sub-Auroral Ionospheric Scatter (SAIS) observed by SuperDARN radars. In order to investigate the mechanism responsible for the growth of these irregularities, a time series for the growth rate of both TGI and GDI is developed. The time series is computed for both perpendicular and meridional density and temperature gradients. The growth rate comparison shows that the TGI is the most likely generation mechanism for the observed quiet-time irregularities and the GDI is expected to play a relatively minor role in irregular- ity generation. This is the first experimental confirmation that mid-latitude decameter-scale ionospheric irregularities are produced by the TGI or by turbulent cascade from primary irregularity structures produced from this instability. The quiet- and disturbed-times plasma wave irregularities are compared by investigating co-located experimental observations by the Blackstone SuperDARN radar and the Millstone Hill ISR under various sets of geomagnetic conditions. The radar observations in conjunction with growth rate calculations suggest that the TGI in association with the GDI or a cascade product from them may cause the observations of disturbed-time sub-auroral ionospheric irregularities. Following this, the nonlinear evolution of the TGI is investigated utilizing gyro-kinetic Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulation techniques with Monte Carlo collisions for the first time. The purpose of this investigation is to identify the mechanism responsible for the nonlinear saturation as well as the associated anomalous transport. The simulation results indicate that the nonlinear E x B convection (trapping) of the electrons is the dominant TGI sat- uration mechanism. The spatial power spectra of the electrostatic potential and density fluctuations associated with the TGI are also computed and the results show wave cascad- ing of TGI from kilometer scales into the decameter-scale regime of the radar observations. This suggests that the observed mid-latitude decameter-scale ionospheric irregularities may be produced directly by the TGI or by turbulent cascade from primary longer-wavelength irregularity structures produced from this instability. Finally, the potential impact of the mid-latitude ionospheric irregularities on GPS signals is investigated utilizing modeling and observations. The recorded GPS data at mid-latitude stations are analyzed to study the amplitude and phase fluctuations of the GPS signals and to investigate the spectral index variations due to ionospheric irregularities. The GPS measurements show weak to moderate scintillations of GPS L1 signals in the presence of ionospheric irregularities during disturbed geomagnetic conditions. The GPS spectral indices are calculated and found to be in the same range of the numerical simulations of TGI and GDI. Both simulation results and GPS spectral analysis are consistent with previous in-situ satellite measurements during disturbed periods, showing that the spectral index of mid- latitude density irregularities are of the order 2. The scintillation results along with radar observations suggest that the observed decameter-scale irregularities that cause SuperDARN backscatter, co-exist with kilometer-scale irregularities that cause L-band scintillations. The alignment between the experimental, theoretical, and computational results of this study suggests that turbulent cascade processes of TGI and GDI may cause the observations of GPS scintillations that occur under disturbed conditions of the mid-latitude F-region ionosphere. The TGI and GDI wave cascading lends further support to the belief that the E-region may be responsible for shorting out the F-region TGI and GDI electric fields before and around sunset and ultimately leading to irregularity suppression.
Ph. D.

The work inspects the ionospheric plasma response to the last minimum of solar activity (minimum 23/24, years 2008-2009), which was extremely low and prolonged. Characterized by unprecedented features in space era, the last minimum represents then a unique natural window to study the ionospheric plasma behaviors in such extreme conditions. The work is organized in two main parts. The first one focuses on the analysis of the relationships between the parameter foF2 and five widely used solar activity indices: F10.7, Lym-α, MgII, R and EUV0.1-50. Using the long and continuous dataset of the mid-latitude station of Rome (41.8°N, 12.8°E, Italy) and applying a 1-year running mean to both foF2 and solar indices, it is found that a second order polynomial fit represents the best choice to describe the relationships (foF2 vs Index) and that the index MgII is the best one to describe and forecast the variations of foF2. The application of these outcomes to the European regional model SIRM produced an improvement of the corresponding performances. The second part investigates the differences between the last solar minimum and the previous ones, and evaluates the performances of the IRI-2012 model for the parameters NmF2 and hmF2, using data from four ionosondes: Rome, Gibilmanna (37.9°N, 14°E, Italy), Tucumán (26.9°N, 294.6°E, Argentina) and São José dos Campos (23.1ºS, 314.5ºE, Brazil). The inter-minima analysis reveals a decrease for both NmF2 and hmF2 for the last minimum with respect to the previous ones, with more pronounced decreases at low latitudes. The comparison between ionosonde data and IRI outputs shows that: (1) the model does not worsen its performances for the last minimum; (2) it works better at mid latitudes than at low latitudes; (3) it slightly overestimates (~10%) hmF2 at both latitudes.

The ionosphere is the conducting part of the upper atmosphere that plays a significant role in trans-ionospheric high frequency (HF, 3-30 MHz) radiowave propagation. Solar activities, such as solar flares, radiation storms, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), alter the state of the ionosphere, a phenomenon known as Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance (SID), that can severely disrupt HF radio communication links by enhancing radiowave absorption and altering signal frequency and phase. The Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) is an international network of low-power HF coherent scatter radars distributed across the globe to probe the ionosphere and its relation to solar activities. In this study, we used SuperDARN HF radar measurements with coordinated spacecraft and riometer observations to investigate statistical characteristics and the driving mechanisms of various manifestations of solar flare-driven SIDs in HF observations. We begin in Chapter 2 with a statistical characterization of various effects of solar flares on SuperDARN observations. Simultaneous observations from GOES spacecraft and SuperDARN radars confirmed flare-driven HF absorption depends on solar zenith angle, operating frequency, and intensity of the solar flare. The study found flare-driven SID also affects the SuperDARN backscatter signal frequency, which produces a sudden rise in Doppler velocity observation, referred to as the ``Doppler flash'', which occurs before the HF absorption effect. In Chapter 3, we further investigate the HF absorption effect during successive solar flares and those co-occurring with other geomagnetic disturbances during the 2017 solar storm. We found successive solar flares can extend the ionospheric relaxation time and the variation of HF absorption with latitude is different depending on the type of disturbance. In Chapter 4, we looked into an inertial property of the ionosphere, sluggishness, its variations with solar flare intensity, and made some inferences about D-region ion-chemistry using a simulation study. Specifically, we found solar flares alter the D-region chemistry by enhancing the electron detachment rate due to a sudden rise in molecular vibrational and rotational energy under the influence of enhanced solar radiation. In Chapter 5, we describe a model framework that reproduces HF absorption observed by riometers. This chapter compares different model formulations for estimating HF absorption and discusses different driving influences of HF absorption. In Chapter 6, we have investigated different driving mechanisms of the Doppler flash observed by SuperDARN radars. We note two particular findings: (i) the Doppler flash is predominantly driven by a change in the F-region refractive index and (ii) a combination of solar flare-driven enhancement in photoionization, and changes in the zonal electric field and(or) ionospheric conductivity reduces upward ion-drift, which produces a lowering effect in the F-region HF radiowave reflection height. Collectively, these research findings provide a statistical characterization of various solar flare effects on the ionosphere seen in the HF observations, and insights into their driving mechanisms and impacts on ionospheric dynamics.
Doctor of Philosophy
The Earth's ionosphere, extending from about 60 km to 1000 km in altitude, is an electrically charged region of the upper atmosphere that exists primarily due to ionization by solar X-ray and extreme ultraviolet radiation. The ionosphere is an effective barrier to energetic electromagnetic (EM) radiation and charged particles originating from the Sun or any other extraterrestrial sources and protect us against harmful space radiation. High frequency (HF, 3-30 MHz) radio communication, broadly used for real-time medium and long-range communication, is strongly dependent on the state of the ionosphere, which is susceptible to solar activities, such as solar flares, solar energetic particles (SEPs), and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Specifically, we are interested in the impacts of solar flares. In this study, we use Super Dual Auroral Radar Network (SuperDARN) HF radars, ground-based riometers, and coordinated spacecraft observations to investigate the driving mechanisms of various space weather impacts on the ionosphere and radiowave propagation following solar flares. We begin in Chapter 2 with a characterization of various kinds of ionospheric disturbances manifested in SuperDARN backscattered signal following solar flares. Specifically, we characterized HF absorption effects and frequency anomalies experienced by traveling radiowaves, also known as Shortwave Fadeout (SWF) and Sudden Frequency Deviations (SFDs), respectively. In SuperDARN HF radar observations, SFDs are recorded as a sudden enhancement in Doppler velocity, which is referred to as the ``Doppler flash''. In Chapter 3, we investigate a special event study that elucidates the nonlinear physics behind HF absorption caused by multiple simultaneous solar flares and flares co-occurring with SEPs and CMEs. In Chapter 4, we explore an inertial property of the ionosphere, known as sluggishness, and its dependence on solar flares can provide important information about the chemical proprieties of the ionosphere. We found that the enhanced solar radiation during a solar flare increases the molecular vibrational and rotational energy that in turn enhances the electron detachment rate and reduces ionospheric sluggishness. In Chapter 5, we describe a framework to estimate HF absorption observed by riometers following solar flares. We analyze the influence of different physical parameters, such as collision frequency and electron temperature, on HF absorption. In Chapter 6, we delved into the physical processes that drive the Doppler flash in SuperDARN observations following solar flares. We find, (i) the Doppler flash is predominately driven by change in the F-region refractive index and (ii) a combination of solar flare-driven enhancement in photoionization, and change in zonal electric field and(or) ionospheric conductivity reduces upward ion-drift, which produces a lowering effect in the F-region HF radiowave reflection height. Taken together, these research findings provide new insights into solar flare impacts on the ionosphere and could be used to improve forecasting of ionospheric space weather disturbances following solar flares.

Plasma turbulence associated with the creation of an artificial dust layer in the earth's ionosphere is investigated. The Charged Aerosol Release Experiment (CARE) aims to understand the mechanisms for enhanced radar scatter from plasma irregularities embedded in dusty plasmas in space. Plasma irregularities embedded in a artificial dusty plasma in space may shed light on understanding the mechanism for enhanced radar scatter in Noctilucent Clouds (NLCs) and Polar Mesospheric Summer Echoes (PMSEs) in the earth's mesosphere. Artificially created, charged-particulate layers also have strong impact on radar scatter as well as radio signal propagation in communication and surveillance systems. The sounding rocket experiment was designed to develop theories of radar scatter from artificially created plasma turbulence in charged dust particle environment. Understanding plasma irregularities embedded in a artificial dusty plasma in space will also contribute to addressing possible effects of combustion products in rocket/space shuttle exhaust in the ionosphere. In dusty space plasmas, plasma irregularities and instabilities can be generated during active dust aerosol release experiments. Small scale irregularities (several tens of centimeter to meters) and low frequency waves (in the ion/dust scale time in the order of second) are studied in this work, which can be measured by High Frequency (HF), Very High Frequency (VHF) and Ultra High Frequency (UHF) radars. The existence of dust aerosol particles makes computational modeling of plasma irregularities extremely challenging not only because of multiple spatial and temporal scale issue but also due to complexity of dust aerosol particles. This work will provide theoretical and computational models to study plasma irregularities driven by dust aerosol release for the purpose of designing future experiments with combined ground radar, optical and in-situ measurement. In accordance with linear analysis, feasible hybrid computational models are developed to study nonlinear evolution of plasma instabilities in artificially created dusty space plasmas. First of all, the ion acoustic (IA) instability and dust acoustic (DA) instability in homogenous unmagnetized plasmas are investigated by a computational model using a Boltzmann electron assumption. Such acoustic-type instabilities are attributed to the charged dust and ion streaming along the geomagnetic field. Secondly, in a homogenous magnetized dusty plasma, lower-hybrid (LH) streaming instability will be generated by dust streaming perpendicular to the background geomagnetic field. The magnetic field effect on lower-hybrid streaming instabilities is investigated by including the ratio of electron plasma frequency and electron gyro frequency in this model. The instability in weakly magnetized circumstances agree well with that for the ion acoustic (IA) instability by a Boltzmann model. Finally, in an inhomogeneous unmagnetized/magnetized dust boundary layer, possible instabilities will be addressed, including dust acoustic (DA) wave due to flow along the boundary and lower-hybrid (LH) sheared instability due to flow cross the boundary. With applications to active rocket experiments, plasma irregularity features in a linear/nonlinear saturated stage are characterized and predicted. Important parameters of the dust aerosol clouds that impact the evolution of waves will be also discussed for upcoming dust payload generator design. These computational models, with the advantage of following nonlinear wave-particle interaction, could be used for space dusty plasmas as well as laboratory dusty plasmas.
Ph. D.

A New Ionospheric Model (ANIMo) based upon the physics of production, loss, and vertical transport has been developed. The model is driven by estimates of neutral composition, temperature and solar flux and is applicable to the mid-latitude regions of the Earth under quiet and moderate geomagnetic conditions. This model was designed to exhibit specific features that were not easy to find all together in other existing ionospheric models. ANIMo needed to be simple to use and interact with, relatively accurate, reliable, robust and computationally efficient. The definition of these characteristics was mostly driven by the intention to use ANIMo in a Data Assimilation (DA) scheme. DA or data ingestion can be described as a technique where observations and model realizations, called background information, are combined together to achieve a level of accuracy that is higher than the accuracy of the two elements taken separately. In this project ANIMo was developed to provide a robust and reliable background contribution. The observations are given by the Global Positioning System (GPS) ionospheric measurements, collected from several networks of GPS ground-station receivers and are available on on-line repositories. The research benefits from the Multi-Instrument Data Analysis System (MIDAS) [Mitchell and Spencer, 2003; Spencer and Mitchell, 2007], which is an established ionospheric tomography software package that produces three dimensional reconstructions of the ionosphere starting from GPS measurements. Utilizing ANIMo in support of MIDAS has therefore the potential to generate a very stable set-up for monitoring and study the ionosphere. In particular, the model is expected to compensate some of the typical limitations of ionospheric tomography techniques described by Yeh and Raymund [1991] and Raymund et al. [1994]. These are associated with the lack of data due to the uneven distribution of ground-based receivers and limitations to viewing angles. Even in regions of good receiver coverage there is a need to compensate for information on the vertical profile of ionisation. MIDAS and other tomography techniques introduce regularization factors that can assure the achievement of a unique solution in the inversion operation. These issues could be solved by aiding the operation with external information provided by a physical model, like ANIMo, through a data ingestion scheme; this ensures that the contribution is completely independent and there is an effective accuracy improvement. Previously, the limitation in vertical resolution has been solved by applying vertical orthonormal functions based upon empirical models in different ways [Fougere, 1995; Fremouw et al., 1992; Sutton and Na, 1994]. The potential for the application of a physical model, such ANIMo is that it can provide this information according to the current ionospheric conditions. During the project period ANIMo has been developed and incorporated with MIDAS. The result is A New Ionospheric Data Assimilation System (ANIDAS); its name suggests that the system is the implementation of ANIMo in MIDAS. Because ANIDAS is a data ingestion scheme, it has the potential to be used to perform not only more accurate now-casting but also forecasting. The outcomes of ANIDAS at the current time can be used to initialise ANIMo for the next time step and therefore trigger another assimilation turn. In future, it is intended that ANIMo will form the basis to a new system to predict the electron density of the ionosphere – ionospheric forecasting.

This thesis creates a basic framework and provides the information necessary to create a more accurate description of the topside ionosphere in terms of the altitude variation of the electron density (Ne) over the South African region. The detailed overview of various topside ionospheric modelling techniques, with specific emphasis on their implications for the efforts to model the South African topside, provides a starting point towards achieving the goals. The novelty of the thesis lies in the investigation of the applicabilityof three different techniques to model the South African topside ionosphere: (1) The possibility of using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) techniques for empirical modelling of the topside ionosphere based on the available, however irregularly sampled, topside sounder measurements. The goal of this model was to test the ability of ANN techniques to capture the complex relationships between the various ionospheric variables using irregularly distributed measurements. While this technique is promising, the method did not show significant improvement over the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) model results when compared with the actual measurements. (2) Application of the diffusive equilibrium theory. Although based on sound physics foundations, the method only operates on a generalised level leading to results that are not necessarily unique. Furthermore, the approach relies on many ionospheric variables as inputs which are derived from other models whose accuracy is not verified. (3) Attempts to complement the standard functional techniques, (Chapman, Epstein, Exponential and Parabolic), with Global Positioning System (GPS) and ionosonde measurements in an effort to provide deeper insights into the actual conditions within the ionosphere. The vertical Ne distribution is reconstructed by linking together the different aspects of the constituent ions and their transition height by considering how they influence the shape of the profile. While this approach has not been tested against actual measurements, results show that the method could be potentially useful for topside ionospheric studies. Due to the limitations of each technique reviewed, this thesis observes that the employment of an approach that incorporates both theoretical onsiderations and empirical aspects has the potential to lead to a more accurate characterisation of the topside ionospheric behaviour, and resulting in improved models in terms of reliability and forecasting ability. The point is made that a topside sounder mission for South Africa would provide the required measured topside ionospheric data and answer the many science questions that this region poses as well as solving a number of the limitations set out in this thesis.

The Earth's polar ionosphere is a highly dynamic region of the upper atmosphere, and acts as the closure of the greater magnetospheric current system. This region plays host to many electrodynamic effects that impact terrestrial systems, such as power grids, railroads, and pipelines. These effects are fundamentally related to the currents, electric fields, and conductivity present in the polar ionosphere. Understanding and predicting the electrodynamics of this region is vital to being able to determine the physical impacts on terrestrial systems and provide predictions to government and commercial entities. Empirical models play a key role in the research and forecasting of the solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field's impact on the polar ionosphere, and is an active area of development and research. Recent interest in polar ionospheric conductivity has led to a community-wide campaign to develop our understanding of this portion of the electrodynamic system. Characterizing the interactions between the solar wind and the polar ionosphere is a difficult task, as the region of interest is highly data starved in many respects. In particular, satellite based data products are scarce due to being costly and logistically difficult. Recent advancements in data sources (such as the Swarm and CHAMP satellite missions) as well as continued research into the physical relationships between solar wind and interplanetary magnetic field drivers have provided the opportunity to develop new, novel tools to study this region of interest. In this dissertation, two polar ionosphere models are described in Chapters 3 and 4, along with the original research that their construction has produced in Chapter 1. These two models are combined to provide a foundation for future research in this area, which is described in Chapter 5.
Doctor of Philosophy

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Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
We study the behavior of the Earth-ionosphere waveguide through the modeling of the propagation of very low frequency radio waves (VLF). We use the computational model LWPC (Long Wave Propagation Capability) to estimate changes in amplitude and phase of the VLF signals detected by the SAVNET network (South America VLF NETwork), and thus try to understand the behavior of the lower ionosphere under different ionization conditions. The research was divided into two parts. The first part investigates the behavior of the VLF signals in quiescent regimes of ionization. Amplitude and phase simulations for the were carried out, modifying adapting polynomials for the β and h parameters (or Wait s parameters) as a function of the zenithal angle. The second part of this research, uses these polynomials in the study of the lower ionosphere under transient ionization regimes in two distinct conditions: first during of solar flares and second during solar eclipse. For the simulations under solar flare conditions, we calculate the changes in β and ℎ′ parameters during the 25/03/2008 solar explosion. With these values, we calculate the electronic density profile through an exponential model and we find that the electronic density at 75 km is ∼ 104 cm−3, that is twenty times higher than during quiescent conditions. To evaluate our parameter estimates, we calculate the variation of the Wait s parameters for the case of twelve solar events of different classes. We note that the variations Δℎ′ found in this work are larger than that in Muraoka, Murata e Sato (1977) because they consider the variations in the conductivity gradient. For the solar eclipse simulations on 11/07/2011, we investigate its effect on the VLF phase. For this, we use the obscuration coefficient to estimate the guide height variation along the whole path during the eclipse. The simulations reproduce the phase behavior during the eclipse. However, a delay of about twenty four minutes was observed between the simulated and observed measurements. The observed delay is a direct consequence of own estimates of the perturbed ionospheric height and it causal relation with the obscuration during the eclipse. lower ionosphere, VLF, modeling, ionospheric disturbances, solar flares, solar eclipse.
Neste trabalho realizamos o estudo do comportamento do guia de ondas terra-ionosfera através da modelagem da propagação ondas de rádio de frequência muito baixa (VLF). Para isto, utilizamos o modelo computacional LWPC (Long Wave Propagation Capability) para estimar as variações de amplitude e fase de sinais de VLF detectados nos trajetos da rede SAVNET (South America VLF NETwork) e assim compreender o comportamento da baixa ionosfera em diferentes regimes de ionização. A pesquisa foi dividida em duas partes. A primeira parte, investigou o comportamento do sinal VLF em regimes quiescente de ionização, assim realizou-se simulações de amplitude e fase adaptando polinômios que definem os parâmetros β e ℎ′ (ou parâmetros de Wait) em função do ângulo zenital solar. Na segunda parte desta pesquisa, aplicou-se os polinômios no estudo da baixa ionosfera sob regimes transientes de ionização em duas condições distintas. A primeira para o caso de explosões solares e a segunda um para eclipse solar. Nas simulações relativas a explosões solares, calculamos as variações dos parâmetros β e ℎ′ durante o evento do dia 25/03/2008. Com esses valores, calculamos o perfil de densidade eletrônica, através de um modelo exponencial e observamos que a densidade eletrônica em 75 km é ∼ 104 cm−3, ou seja, vinte vezes maiores que antes da explosão. Para avaliar nossas estimativas, calculamos a variação dos parâmetros de Wait para doze eventos de diferentes classes. Observamos que as variações Δℎ′ neste trabalho são sempre maiores do que as descritas em Muraoka, Murata e Sato (1977), devido elas considerarem as variações no gradiente de condutividade. Nas simulações relativa ao eclipse solar do dia 11/07/2011, investigamos seu efeito na fase observada. Para esse estudo, utilizou-se o coeficiente de obscurecimento para realizar as simulações, desta forma foi possível estimar a variação da altura do guia ao longo de todo o trajeto durante o eclipse. As simulações reproduziram o comportamento da fase durante o eclipse. Entretanto, foi observado um atraso entre as medidas calculadas e observadas de aproximadamente ∼ vinte e quatro minutos. O atraso observado é diretamente decorrente da estimativa da altura de referência da ionosfera pertubada e de sua relação causal com o obscurecimento durante o eclipse.

Aquesta investigació s'ha centrat en profunditzar en el coneixement del comportament de l'estructura vertical de la regió F de la ionosfera, tant en condicions de calma com pertorbades, i en la seva modelització mitjançant funcions analítiques. Les pretensions d'aquesta investigació han estat motivades per les discrepàncies existents entre les prediccions ionosfèriques del gruix i la forma del perfil de densitat de la regió F en condicions de calma i la seva variació característica, i per l'absència d'un model capaç de reproduir la resposta de l'altura del màxim de ionització en condiciones pertorbades. En aquesta investigació s'ha determinat el comportament patró del gruix i la forma del perfil de densitat electrònica de la regió F en condicions de calma (determinats pels paràmetres B0 i B1 del model Internacional de Referència de la Ionosfera, IRI) en un ampli rang de longituds i latituds. Amb això, s'ha desenvolupat un model global per a cada paràmetre mitjançant una formulació analítica simple que simula les variacions temporals d'aquests en condiciones de calma. La simulació d'aquests models millora (en termes de l'error quadràtic mig, RMSE) les prediccions de l'IRI en un 40% per a B0 i en un 20% per a B1. També s'ha caracteritzat la reacció de l'altura del màxim de ionització, hmF2, a latituds mitges i condicions magnèticament pertorbades, i s'ha determinat un comportament sistemàtic d'aquesta pertorbació, ∆hmF2, la morfologia de la qual depèn del camp magnètic interplanetari (IMF), del temps local, de l'estació de l'any i la latitud. Amb això, s'ha desenvolupat un model empíric que simula la pertorbació d'hmF2 resultant durant tempestes geomagnètiques intenses mitjançant funcions analítiques. Aquest model prediu els esdeveniments d'∆hmF2 amb un 86 % d'encert sense generar falses alarmes i amb un RMSE de 40 km respecte els valors experimentals, que és equivalent al rang de variació experimental obtingut en condicions de calma. Finalment, destacar que també han estat objecte d'estudi en aquesta investigació els mecanismes responsables del comportament ionosfèric tant en condiciones de calma com pertorbades i, especialment, el model de tempesta basat en el paper rector de la circulació del vent neutre termosfèric.
Esta investigación se ha centrado en profundizar en el conocimiento del comportamiento de la estructura vertical de la región F de la ionosfera, tanto en condiciones de calma como perturbadas, y en su modelado mediante funciones analíticas. Las pretensiones de esta investigación han estado motivadas por las discrepancias existentes entre las predicciones ionosféricas del espesor y la forma del perfil de densidad de la región F en condiciones de calma y su variación característica, y por la ausencia de un modelo capaz de reproducir la respuesta de la altura del máximo de ionización a condiciones perturbadas. En esta investigación se ha determinado el comportamiento patrón del espesor y la forma del perfil de densidad electrónica de la región F en condiciones de calma (determinados por los parámetros B0 y B1 del modelo Internacional de Referencia de la Ionosfera, IRI) en un amplio rango de longitudes y latitudes. Con esto, se ha desarrollado un modelo global para cada parámetro mediante una formulación analítica simple que simula las variaciones temporales de éstos en condiciones de calma. La simulación de estos modelos mejora (en términos del error cuadrático medio, RMSE) las predicciones del IRI en un 40% para B0 y en un 20% para B1. También se ha caracterizado la reacción de la altura del máximo de ionización, hmF2, en latitudes medias y condiciones magnéticamente perturbadas, y se ha determinado un comportamiento sistemático de dicha perturbación, ∆hmF2, cuya morfología depende del campo magnético interplanetario (IMF), del tiempo local, de la estación del año y de la latitud. Con ello, se ha desarrollado un modelo empírico que simula la perturbación en hmF2 resultante durante tormentas geomagnéticas intensas mediante funciones analíticas. Este modelo predice los eventos de ∆hmF2 con un 86% de acierto sin generar falsas alarmas y con un RMSE de 40 km respecto a los valores experimentales, que es equivalente al rango de variación experimental obtenido en condiciones de calma. Finalmente, resaltar que también han sido objeto de estudio en esta investigación los mecanismos responsables del comportamiento ionosférico tanto en condiciones de calma como perturbadas y, especialmente, el modelo de tormenta basado en el papel rector de la circulación del viento neutro termosférico.
The main objective of this research is to improve the knowledge on the vertical structure of the ionospheric F region during both, quiet and disturbed conditions, and its modelling by analytical functions. The main motivations of this research were the existing discrepancies between the predictions of the F region electron density profile thickness and shape during quiet conditions and their characteristic variation, and the absence of a model capable to reproduce the electron density peak height response to disturbed conditions. In this research, the pattern behaviour for quiet conditions of the F region electron density profile thickness and shape (determined by the International Reference Ionosphere model (IRI) parameters B0 and B1) was determined in a wide range of longitudes and latitudes. Then, a global model was developed for each parameter using a simple analytical formulation that simulates their temporal variations during quiet conditions. These model simulations improve (in terms of the root mean square error, RMSE) the IRI predictions by 40 % for B0 and by 20 % for B1. The reaction of the electron density peak height, hmF2, at mid latitudes and magnetically disturbed conditions, was also characterized and the systematic behaviour of this disturbance, ∆hmF2, was determined. The morphology of this disturbance depends on the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF), local time, season and latitude. Furthermore, an empirical model was developed to simulate the hmF2 disturbance during intense geomagnetic storms using analytical functions. This model predicts the ∆hmF2 events with a success of 86 % without generating false alarms and with a RMSE of 40 km with respect to the experimental values, which is equivalent to the experimental variation range obtained during quiet conditions. Finally, the mechanisms responsible of the ionospheric behaviour during both, quiet and disturbed conditions, were also studied in this research, specially the storm model based on the leading role of the thermospheric neutral wind circulation.

Higher order ionospheric effects have grown in relevance as the accuracy of geodetic GPS analysis has increased in recent years and have become an active area of research. Considering periods of up to three years at ionospheric maximum, previous studies modelled the effects of the second (12) and third (B) order ionospheric terms arising from the expansion ofthe refractive index of the ionosphere as a series. This study investigates the effects of the 12 and 13 terms and also those of the higher order ionospheric bending terms over a much longer period of 14 years. This allows more extensive consideration of temporal effects and, for the first time, the assessment of velocity biases. Five global reprocessing runs were performed, identical with the exception of changes in the higher order ionospheric terms modelled and the magnetic field model for the 12 term. The velocity bias in the vertical component found when modelling the 12 and 13 terms is in the range 0.0-0.29 mm yr" for 1996.0-2001.0 and -0.34-0.0 mm yr' for 2001.0-2006.0. Mean coordinate differences (2001.0-2004.0) when modelling the magnetic field using the International Geomagnetic Reference Field or using a eo-centric tilted magnetic dipole are sub-millimetre but noticeable around the South Atlantic and in South East Asia. The 13 term is shown to have a negligible effect on translations estimated from the GPS reference frame to ITRF2005 in comparison to the 12 term. Its effect on scale is similar in magnitude to that of the 12 term at less than 0.05 ppb. Finally, a trial implementation of the higher order ionospheric bending terms has been tested on a global GPS network for the first time. Modelling the bending corrections appears to have a minimal effect on site coordinates and tropospheric total zenith delays (TZDs) except for low latitude sites, where mean TZDs are affected by up to ~ 1.7 mm over 5 days at ionospheric maximum (DOY 301-305, 2001). Reference frame effects are mainly limited to the Z component, although the 90-day smoothed Z-translation from the GPS reference frame to ITRF2005 changes by less than 2 mm.

Low/equatorial latitudes vertical plasma drifts and electric fields govern the formation and changes of ionospheric density structures which affect space-based systems such as communications, navigation and positioning. Dynamical and electrodynamical processes play important roles in plasma distribution at different altitudes. Because of the high variability of E × B drift in low latitude regions, coupled with various processes that sometimes originate from high latitudes especially during geomagnetic storm conditions, it is challenging to develop accurate vertical drift models. This is despite the fact that there are very few instruments dedicated to provide electric field and hence E × B drift data in low/equatorial latitude regions. To this effect, there exists no ground-based instrument for direct measurements of E×B drift data in the African sector. This study presents the first time investigation aimed at modelling the long-term variability of low latitude vertical E × B drift over the African sector using a combination of Communication and Navigation Outage Forecasting Systems (C/NOFS) and ground-based magnetometer observations/measurements during 2008-2013. Because the approach is based on the estimation of equatorial electrojet from ground-based magnetometer observations, the developed models are only valid for local daytime. Three modelling techniques have been considered. The application of Empirical Orthogonal Functions and partial least squares has been performed on vertical E × B drift modelling for the first time. The artificial neural networks that have the advantage of learning underlying changes between a set of inputs and known output were also used in vertical E × B drift modelling. Due to lack of E×B drift data over the African sector, the developed models were validated using satellite data and the climatological Scherliess-Fejer model incorporated within the International Reference Ionosphere model. Maximum correlation coefficient of ∼ 0.8 was achieved when validating the developed models with C/NOFS E × B drift observations that were not used in any model development. For most of the time, the climatological model overestimates the local daytime vertical E × B drift velocities. The methods and approach presented in this study provide a background for constructing vertical E ×B drift databases in longitude sectors that do not have radar instrumentation. This will in turn make it possible to study day-to-day variability of vertical E×B drift and hopefully lead to the development of regional and global models that will incorporate local time information in different longitude sectors.

The electrodynamics of the Earth's low-latitude ionosphere is dependent on the ionospheric conductivity and the thermospheric neutral density, temperature, and winds present. This two-part study focused on the gravity wave seeding mechanism of equatorial plasma depletions in the ionosphere and the associated equatorial spread F, as well as the differences between a two-dimensional flux tube integrated electrodynamics model and a three-dimensional model for the same time period. The gravity wave seeding study was based on a parameterization of a gravity wave perturbation using a background empirical thermosphere and a physics-based ionosphere for the case of 12 UT on 26 September 2002. The electrodynamics study utilized a two-dimensional flux tube integrated model in center dipole coordinates, which is derived in this work. This case study examined the relative influence of the zonal wind, meridional wind, vertical wind, temperature, and density perturbations of the gravity wave. It further looked at the angle of the wave front to the field line flux tube, the most influential height of the perturbation, and the difference between planar and thunderstorm source gravity waves with cylindrical symmetry. The results indicate that, of the five perturbation components studied, the zonal wind is the most important mechanism to seed the Rayleigh-Taylor instability needed to develop plasma plumes. It also shows that the bottomside of the F-region is the most important region to perturb, but a substantial E-region influence is also seen. Furthermore, a wave front with a small angle from the field line is necessary, but the shape of the wave front is not critical in the gravity wave is well developed before nightfall. Preliminary results from the three-dimensional model indicate that the equipotential field line assumption of the two-dimensional model is not valid below 100 km and possibly higher. Future work with this model should attempt to examine more of the differences with the two-dimensional model in the electric fields and currents produced as well as with the plasma drifts that lead to plume development.

Abstract Powerful radio waves can heat an electron gas via collisions between free electrons and neutral particles. Since the discovery of the Luxembourg effect in 1934, this effect is known to take place in the D-region ionosphere. According to theoretical models, the EISCAT Heating facility is capable of increasing the electron temperature by a factor of 5–10 in the D region, depending mostly on the electron density profile. Various indirect evidence for the existence of the D-region heating effect has been available, including successful modification of ionospheric conductivities and mesospheric chemistry. However, an experimental quantification of the electron temperature at its maximum in the heated D-region ionosphere has been missing. In particular, incoherent scatter (IS) radars should be able to observe directly plasma parameters, such as the electron temperature, although the heated D-region ionosphere is not a trivial target because of low electron density, and hence, small signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In this thesis, Papers I and III present unique estimates for heated D-region electron temperatures based on IS measurements. It turned out that the theoretical predictions of the electron temperature generally agree with the few existing observations, at least at the altitudes of the maximum heating effect. Quite in contrast, when the D-region heating effect on the cosmic radio noise absorption was verified for the first time by the statistical data analysis presented in Paper II, the absorption enhancements due to heating were found to be an order of magnitude smaller than model results. The reason for this discrepancy remains still as open question, although one possible explanation is provided by the electron-temperature dependent ion chemistry, which was not taken into account in the modelling. The significance of the heating-induced ion chemistry effect in the D-region was investigated in Paper IV. There the heating-induced negative ion formation is proposed as a potential explanation for the observed modulation of Polar Mesosphere Winter Echo (PMWE) power.

It has been shown in ionospheric research that modelling total electron content (TEC) during storm conditions is a big challenge. In this study, mathematical equations were developed to estimate TEC over Sutherland (32.38⁰S, 20.81⁰E), during storm conditions, using the Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) analysis, combined with regression analysis. TEC was derived from GPS observations and a geomagnetic storm was defined for Dst ≤ -50 nT. The inputs for the model were chosen based on the factors that influence TEC variation, such as diurnal, seasonal, solar and geomagnetic activity variation, and these were represented by hour of the day, day number of the year, F10.7 and A index respectively. The EOF model was developed using GPS TEC data from 1999 to 2013 and tested on different storms. For the model validation (interpolation), three storms were chosen in 2000 (solar maximum period) and three others in 2006 (solar minimum period), while for extrapolation six storms including three in 2014 and three in 2015 were chosen. Before building the model, TEC values for the selected 2000 and 2006 storms were removed from the dataset used to construct the model in order to make the model validation independent on data. A comparison of the observed and modelled TEC showed that the EOF model works well for storms with non-significant ionospheric TEC response and storms that occurred during periods of low solar activity. High correlation coefficients between the observed and modelled TEC were obtained showing that the model covers most of the information contained in the observed TEC. Furthermore, it has been shown that the EOF model developed for a specific station may be used to estimate TEC over other locations within a latitudinal and longitudinal coverage of 8.7⁰ and 10.6⁰ respectively. This is an important result as it reduces the data dimensionality problem for computational purposes. It may therefore not be necessary for regional storm-time TEC modelling to compute TEC data for all the closest GPS receiver stations since most of the needed information can be extracted from measurements at one location.

Modeling of the ionosphere has been a highly interesting subject within the scientific community due to its effects on the propagation of electromagnetic waves. The development of the Global Positioning System (GPS) and creation of extensive ground-based GPS networks started a new period in observation of the ionosphere, which resulted in several studies on GPS-based modeling of the ionosphere. However, software studies on the subject that are open to the scientific community have not progressed in a similar manner and the options for the research community to reach ionospheric modeling results are still limited. Being aware of this need, a new MATLAB®
based ionosphere modeling software, i.e. TECmapper is developed within the study. The software uses three different algorithms for the modeling of the Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) of the ionosphere, namely, 2D B-spline, 3D B-spline and spherical harmonic models. The study includes modifications for the original forms of the B-spline and the spherical harmonic approaches. In order to decrease the effect of outliers in the data a robust regression algorithm is utilized as an alternative to the least squares estimation. Besides, two regularization methods are employed to stabilize the ill-conditioned problems in parameter estimation stage. The software and models are tested on a real data set from ground-based GPS receivers over Turkey. Results indicate that the B-spline models are more successful for the local or regional modeling of the VTEC. However, spherical harmonics should be preferred for global applications since the B-spline approach is based on Euclidean theory.

Abstract This thesis studies the ionospheres of the Earth and Mars by combining the observations of versatile instruments providing information on various aspects of the planetary environments. The work on the terrestrial ionosphere focuses particularly on solar wind–magnetosphere–ionosphere coupling, while the work on the Martian ionosphere is based on the development of a new approach to analyse radio-occultation data to retrieve the atmospheric and ionospheric profiles. In the Earth's ionosphere, two papers study the effects of solar wind high-speed streams on the ionospheric F-region peak electron density and on cosmic noise absorption resulting from the precipitation of energetic (>30 keV) electrons into the D region. For the first paper, a modified version of the superposed epoch analysis method, called phase-locked superposed epoch analysis method, was developed. The main finding is that a depletion near the F-region peak takes place in the afternoon and evening sectors during high-speed stream events. This could be explained by an increase in the electron loss rate as a consequence of ion-neutral frictional heating, which enhances the ion temperature and leads to neutral atmosphere expansion. In addition, dayside and post-midnight F-peak electron density increases are observed, probably related to soft particle precipitation. The second study reveals that cosmic noise absorption occurs during up to 4 days after the arrival of a high-speed stream, as substorm-injected energetic electrons precipitate in the midnight to early-afternoon ionosphere, principally at auroral latitudes. A third study reports for the first time observations of a modulation of cosmic noise absorption at periods near 10 s, associated with pulsating aurora. This suggests that the energetic component of the precipitating ux is modulated consistently with the auroral (1–10 keV) energies. At Mars, radio-occultation experiments have been performed by the Mars Express spacecraft since 2004. In this thesis, a new data analysis approach is developed, based on the numerical simulation of radio wave propagation through modelled Martian atmosphere and ionosphere. This approach enables one to overcome limitations inherent in the classical inversion method which has been in use so far. It also gives access to new parameters such as ion density profiles. The new method is tested by analysing the data from two radio-occultation experiments
Tiivistelmä Tämä väitöskirja tutkii Maapallon ja Marsin ionosfäärejä yhdistämällä useiden eri instrumenttien havaintoja, joilla saadaan tietoa planeettojen ympäristöistä. Maapallon ionosfääriä koskeva työ tutkii aurinkotuuli–magnetosfääri–ionosfäärikytkentää, kun taas Marsin ionosfääriä koskevan työn tavoite on uuden radio-okkultaatiomittauksen data-analyysimenetelmän kehittäminen, joka tuottaa ilmakehän ja ionosfäärin profiileja. Maan ionosfäärin tapauksessa yhdessä julkaisussa tutkitaan nopeiden aurinkotuulivirtausten vaikutuksia F-kerroksen elektronitiheyteen ja toisessa julkaisussa tutkitaan energeettisten (>30 keV) elektronien sateesta johtuvaa kosmisen radiokohinan absorptiota D-kerroksessa. Ensimmäisessä julkaisussa on kehitetty uusi versio data-analyysimenetelmästä, jota kutsutaan vaihelukituksi epookkien superpositiomenetelmäksi. Julkaisun päätulos on, että nopeiden aurinkotuulivirtausten aikana F-kerroksen maksimielektronitiheys pienenee iltapäivän ja illan sektoreilla. Tämä voidaan selittää johtuvan siitä, että ioni-neutraalitörmäysten synnyttämä kitkalämpö kasvattaa ionilämpötilaa ja aiheuttaa lisäksi ilmakehän laajenemisen. Molemmat prosessit kasvattavat elektronien häviönopeutta. F-kerroksen elektronitiheysmaksimi puolestaan kasvaa sektorilla, joka ulottuu keskiyöstä aamun kautta keskipäivään, ja tämä johtuu matalaenergeettisestä elektronisateesta. Toisessa julkaisussa havaitaan, että lisääntynyt kosmisen radiokohinan absorptio kestää jopa neljä päivää nopean aurinkotuulivirtauksen saavuttua Maan kohdalle. Tämä johtuu siitä, että alimyrskyitse injektoidut energeettiset elektronit satavat keskiyön ja aamun ionosfääriin, pääasiassa revontuliovaalin alueella. Kolmas julkaisu raportoi ensimmäistä kertaa havainnon sykkiviin revontuliin liittyvästä kosmisen radiokohinan absorptiosta n. 10 s jaksollisuudella. Tämä osoittaa, että elektronivuon energeettinen komponentti on moduloitu samalla jaksollisuudella kuin revontulielektronien energiat (1–10 keV). Marsissa on tehty radio-okkultaatiomittauksia vuodesta 2004 saakka Mars Express -luotaimen avulla. Vaitoskirjassa on kehitetty uusi datan analyysimenetelmä, joka perustuu numeeriseen simulointiin radioaaltojen etenemisestä Marsin ilmakehässä ja ionosfäärissä. Tämän lähestymistavan avulla vältetään tähän asti käytetyn klassisen inversiomenetelmän rajoitukset. Lisäksi menetelmä tuottaa uusia parametrejä kuten ionitiheysprofiileja. Uutta menetelmää testattiin tulkiten kahden radio-okkultaatiomittauksen aineistoa
Résumé Le travail présenté dans ce manuscrit de thèse s'articule autour de l'étude des ionosphères terrestre et martienne. Une approche multi-instrumentale est adoptée afin de combiner des observations permettant de mettre en perspective des manifestations de phénomènes physiques de natures différentes mais intervenant dans un même contexte global. Le travail doctoral comporte également un volet modélisation. Le manuscrit de thèse consiste en une partie introductrice à laquelle sont adossées cinq publications dans des revues scientifiques à comité de lecture. La partie introductrice de ce manuscrit de thèse a pour objectif de présenter le contexte scientifique sur lequel est basé le travail doctoral. Un premier chapitre passe en revue les principaux aspects théoriques dans lesquels s'inscrivent les études dont les résultats sont publiés dans les cinq articles. Les atmosphères et ionosphères de la Terre et de Mars y sont succinctement décrites, de même que les interactions entre ces planètes et le vent solaire, comprenant notamment la formation de magnétosphères. Les deux chapitres suivants présentent les instruments dont sont issues les données utilisées dans ce travail doctoral ainsi que les méthodes d'analyse des données. Le quatrième chapitre résume les principaux résultats obtenus autour des trois grandes thématiques abordées au cours de cette thèse. Enfin, des pistes quant à la continuation potentielle du travail présenté dans ce manuscrit de thèse sont évoquées en conclusion. Le premier article porte sur une étude statistique des effets des courants de vent solaire rapide sur la région F de l'ionosphère aurorale. Il s'appuie sur des données mesurées par l'ionosonde de Sodankylä entre 2006 et 2008. Au cours de cette période, 95 événements associés à des courants de vent solaire rapide ont été sélectionnés, et la réponse de l'ionosphère au-dessus de Sodankylä a été étudiée à partir des fréquences critiques des régions E et F de l'ionosphère, qui donnent la valeur du pic de concentration électronique dans ces deux régions. Pour cela, une version modifiée de la méthode des époques superposées a été développée, appelée “méthode des époques superposées avec verrouillage de phase”. Une augmentation du pic de concentration des régions E et F est observée du côté nuit et le matin, en lien avec une activité aurorale accrue, tandis qu'une déplétion de la région F est révélée aux temps magnétiques locaux situés entre 12 h et 23 h. Une estimation des effets d'une possible modification de l'équilibre photo-chimique résultant d'un accroissement du chauffage issu de la friction entre les ions et les éléments neutres est proposée. Le deuxième article s'intéresse aux précipitations énergétiques dans l'ionosphère aurorale durant ces mêmes 95 événements, en étudiant l'absorption du bruit cosmique qui en résulte. Il apparaît que les événements au cours desquels le vent solaire demeure rapide pendant plusieurs jours produisent davantage de précipitations énergétiques, qui peuvent atteindre les latitudes subaurorales. Par ailleurs, trois types de précipitations énergétiques sont étudiés séparément, selon qu'elles sont associées avec des signatures de sous-orage magnétique, avec des pulsations géomagnétiques, ou ni l'un ni l'autre. Les deux premiers types de précipitations semblent liés. En effet, l'analyse des données suggère que les électrons énergétiques sont injectés dans la magnétosphère interne durant les sous-orages. Tandis qu'une partie d'entre eux précipitent immédiatement du côté nuit, d'autres dérivent vers le côté matin, où ils subissent des interactions avec des ondes électromagnétiques de type siffleur (whistler en anglais), qui peuvent être modulées par des pulsations géomagnétiques, menant à leur précipitation. Le troisième article présente pour la première fois l'observation de signatures d'aurore pulsante dans des données d'absorption du bruit cosmique. Ces signatures sont consistantes avec les pulsations observables dans l'émission aurorale, et semblent indiquer une modulation cohérente des composantes aurorale (1–10 keV) et énergétique (> 30 keV) du spectre des précipitations électroniques au cours d'une aurore pulsante. Le quatrième article introduit une nouvelle méthode proposée pour analyser les données de radio-occultation mesurées par la sonde Mars Express. Cette approche vise à contourner des difficultés posées par les hypothèses fortes nécessaires à la mise en œuvre de la méthode classique d'inversion, notamment celle d'un environnement martien à symétrie sphérique — qui n'est pas acceptable lors de sondages proches du terminateur jour-nuit. La nouvelle méthode est basée sur la modélisation de l'atmosphère et de l'ionosphère de Mars, et sur la simulation de la propagation des ondes radio entre la station sol sur Terre et Mars Express lors d'une expérience de radio-occultation. Les paramètres libres contrôlant les profils atmosphériques et ionosphériques sont ajustés afin que la simulation reproduise le plus fidèlement possible les mesures. Le cinquième article est une réponse à un commentaire sur l'article précédent. Il vise d'une part à répondre aux critiques émises sur la méthode développée, montrant que celles-ci n'en remettent en cause ni la validité ni la pertinence, et d'autre part à y apporter quelques améliorations

The Global Positioning System (GPS) has been widely used for precise positioning applications throughout the world. However, there are still some limiting factors that affect the performance of satellite-based positioning techniques, including the ionosphere. The GPS Network-RTK (NRTK) concept has been developed in an attempt to remove the ionospheric bias from user observations within the network. This technique involves the establishment of a series of GNSS reference stations, spread over a wide geographical region. Real time data from each reference station is collected and transferred to a computing facility where the various spatial and temporal errors affecting the GNSS satellite observations are estimated. These corrections are then transmitted to users observations in the field. As part of a Victorian state government initiative to implement a cm-level real time positioning service state-wide, GPSnet is undergoing extensive infrastructure upgrades to meet high user demand. Due to the sparse (+100km) configuration of GPSnet's reference stations, the precise modelling of Victoria's ionosphere will play a key role in providing this service. This thesis aims is to develop a temporal model for the ionospheric bias within a Victorian NRTK scenario. This research has analysed the temporal variability of the ionosphere over Victoria. It is important to quantify the variability of the ionosphere as it is essential that NRTK corrections are delivered sufficiently often with a small enough latency so that they adequately model variations in the ionospheric bias. This will promote the efficient transmission of correctional data to the rover whilst still achieving cm-level accuracy. Temporal analysis of the ionosphere revealed that, during stable ionospheric conditions, Victoria's double differenced ionospheric (DDI) bias remains correlated to within +5cm out to approximately two minutes over baselines of approximately 100km. However, the data revealed that during more disturbed ionospheric conditions this may decrease to one minute. As a preliminary investigation, four global empirical ionospheric models were tested to assess their ability to estimate the DDI bias. Further, three temporal predictive modelling schemes were tested to assess their suitability for providing ionospheric corrections in a NRTK environment. The analysis took place over four seasonal periods during the previous solar maximum in 2001 and 2002. It was found that due to the global nature of their coefficients, the four global empirical models were unable to provide ionospheric corrections to a level sufficient for precise ambiguity resolution within a NRTK environment. Three temporal ionospheric predictive schemes were developed and tested. These included a moving average model, a linear model and an ARIMA (Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average) time series analysis. The moving average and ARIMA approaches gave similar performance and out-performed the linear modelling scheme. Both of these approaches were able to predict the DDI to +5cm within a 99% confidence interval, out to an average of approximately two minutes, on average 90% of the time when compared to the actual decorrelation rates of the ionosphere. These results suggest that the moving average scheme, could enhance the implementation of next generation NRTK systems by predicting the DDI bias to latencies that would enable cm-level positioning.

The research of this dissertation is studying the ionosphere by GPS radio occultation (RO) techniques. It is mainly divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the methodology in electron density profile retrievals from RO measurements. It aims to get more precise profiles from measured data. Classic Abel inversion is a methodology widely used in RO retrievals, and the error introduced by the spherical symmetry assumption is also well recognised. Separability Method (SM) was developed to eliminate this error in previous studies. In this work, the improvement brought by SM corresponding to classic method is checked and validated. The SM does have better performance excluding the Lack of Collocation (LoC) error. The precision of the results is also shown to depend on the accuracy of the supported GIMs, i.e., the more accurate GIMs are used, the better results can be obtained. The error in SM, introduced by the mis-modelling of using the Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) instead of ECLEO, the electron content below LEO height, is also checked. The result shows that it has only minor impact on the retrievals. The second part is the climatological study of topside ionosphere/bottomside plasmasphere based on the RO retrievals using SM, and aims to give a general picture of characteristics and features of these two regions in different solar periods, 2007 -- solar minimum, and 2014 – solar maximum. The empirical two-components models of topside profiles, STIP model and CPDH model, used to separate the ionospheric and plasmaspheric contribution to the VTEC measured from ground to global positioning system (GPS) satellite altitudes, are studied and validated. The conditions of applicability of the STIP model are also discussed. The same as other existing empirical models, it shows the picture of topside ionosphere till some limited altitude, which is decided by the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite height used to observe the RO. The model is used to derive transition height hu and scale height hs during these two years. Generally, hu and hs show the clear diurnal, seasonal, solar cycle dependencies. The concept of IONf, the ionospheric fractional contribution to VTEC, is introduced and studied. The ionospheric features are shown and most of the ionospheric anomalies have been analyzed through this quantity. Compared to the other ionospheric related parameters, such as Ecion and Ecpl, electron content of ionosphere and plasmasphere, IONf is more stable. Hence, it is more suitable for ionosphere modelling. The Capacitor Model is used to model the consistent ‘ionospheric charging process’ during the period of the day between sunrise and midday/afternoon. The model shows a good performance to reproduce real data in different circumstances and for the maximum and minimum solar activity years analyzed.
La recerca feta en aquesta dissertació consisteix en l'estudi de la ionosfera mitjançant tècniques d'Ocultació Ràdio (RO) de GPS. La primera part s'enfoca en la metodologia d'extracció de perfils de les mesures RO. L'objectiu és l'obtenció de perfils més precisos mesurats a partir de les dades. La inversió clàssica d'Abel és una metodologia emprada àmpliament en l'obtenció de RO, tant mateix l'error introduït per l'assumpció de simetria també és reconegut. En ordre d'eliminar aquest error en estudis previs el Separability Method (SM) va ser desenvolupat. En el present treball es revisa i es valida la millora en el mètode clàssic aportada per SM. SM té un millor comportament inclús quan s'exclou l'error de Lack of Collocation (CoL). La precisió dels resultats depenen també de l'exactitud del GIM's suportats (p.ex. Com més exacte són els GIM's emprats millor són els resultats obtinguts). L'error de SM introduït pel modelatge incorrecte en utilitzar el Vertical Total Electron Content (VTEC) en lloc del ECLEO (el contingut d'electrons per sota de l'altura LEO) també és revisat. Els resultats mostren que només tenen un impacte mínim en les mesures extretes de RO. La segona part és un estudi de la climatologia de la part superior de la ionosfera I la part inferior de la plasmaesfera basat en l'extracció RO mitjançant SM amb l'objectiu de donar una imatge general de les característiques I tres d'aquestes dues regions en diferents períodes solars; el mínim solar de 2007 i el màxim solar de 2014. Dos models empírics bi-component, el model STIP i el model CPD, utilitzats per separar la contribució de la ionosfera i la plasmaesfera al VTEC, s?han estudiat i validat. Addicionalment també es discuteix sobre les condicions de l'aplicació de STIP. També es fa el mateix amb altres models empírics. Es mostra la imatge de la part superior de la ionosfera fins a un límit definit d'altitud el qual és determinat per l'altitud de satèl·lit Low Earth Orbit (LEO) que s?ha utilitzat per observar les RO. S'utilitza el model per derivar les transicions d'altitud hu I l'escala d'altitud hs durant aquests dos anys. Generalment, hu i hs mostren clarament dependències cícliques diürnals, estacionals i solars. És introduït i estudiat el concepte d'IONf, la fracció de contribució de la ionosfera al VTEC. Es mostren els atributs ionosfèrics i la majoria d'anomalies ionosfèriques es veuen plasmaesfera a través d'aquest mesura. En comparació amb altres paràmetres ionosfèrics, com ara Ecion i Ecpl, el contingut d'electrons de la ionosfera i la plasmaesfera IONf, és més estable. Degut això és més idoni pel modelatge de la ionosfera. El Model del Capacitador és emprat per modelar congruentment el procés de càrrega ionosfèrica' durant el sector de l'alba fins al migdia, mostrant que el model representa de manera bastant fidedigna les dades reals en diferents circumstàncies i durant els periodes de màxima i mínima activitat solar

University of Central Florida College of Engineering Thesis
High Frequency (HF) communication has been shown to be a useful communication technique from the very beginning of World War I and it accelerated during World War 11. This is attributed to its simplicity, ability to provide near globe connectivity at low power without repeaters, moderate cost, and ease of proliferation [I]. In fact, the HF communication system utilizes the ionosphere [2][3][4] to refract the skywave signals to a distant receiver. This ionospheric channel has some disadvantages. First, it is a non-stationary channel as the HF frequency propagation is a function of the sun spot activities, solar winds, and diurnal variations of the ionization level [5]. Second, the channel produces distortion in both signal amplitude and phase. As the different ionospheric layers move up or down, independent Doppler shifts on each propagation mode are introduced. Multipath fading [6] caused by multiple refractions of the signal fiom the ionosphere with or without ground reflection causes performance degradation in the HF system. Some techniques have been developed to improve HF performance [I]. One example is Space-Diversity [7], which uses more than one antenna at distant spaces to combine the received signal. Angle-of-Arrival Diversity that takes advantage of the fact that different modes have different arrival angles at the receiver, and so, highly directional antenna for example, can be used to improve the system performance. Another method of improving HF performance is to use different frequencies to transmit and receive messages. This method is known as Frequency diversity. Using timediversity, one can add a degree of redundancy to the transmitted message through the use of different types of coding, interleaving, etc. In the military standard, MIL-STD- 1 88- 1 1 OA [8], a convolutional encoder [9][10] followed by interleaver [Ill-[14] was used to scramble and transmit the data in different bit rates. In the presence of multipath fading [ 1 51, a training sequence is transmitted in an interleaved fashion with the data symbols with a 50% duty cycle. This has the disadvantage of losing half the bandwidth. At present, the recent advances of the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) [16][17] make it possible to reduce the bit-error-rate BEY and increase the transmission bit rate [18] through the usage of adaptive equalization [ 191-[2 11 which will be the focus of this dissertation. Equalizers such as, Transversal Equalizer [ 1 61, Blind Equalizer [22], Training waveform Equalizer [23], and Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) [20] Adaptive Equalizer have been applied into various communication systems. This proposal work will be to initially apply some of the previous developed equalizer to the HF channel specifically. Thereafter, new adaptive channel equalization [24],[25] will be developed to compensate for transmission channel impairments due to bandwidth limitations, multipath propagation, and rayleigh fading [2 11 conditions in mobile environments. A new technique for frequency offset prediction has been developed and finally, a new approach for MIL-STD- 1 88- 1 1 0A high frequency single-tone modem employing orthogonal Walsh-PN codes has been implemented.
Ph.D.
Doctorate;
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Engineering and Computer Science
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
198 p.
xviii, 198 leaves, bound : ill., (some col.) ; 28 cm.

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a technique widely used in applications that require all-weather imaging. The ionosphere affects the operation of these radars, with those operating at L-band (1-2 GHz) and below at risk of being seriously compromised by the ionosphere. A method of using Global Positioning System (GPS) data to synthesize the impact of the ionosphere on SAR systems has been presented. The technique was used to assess the viability of using a signal phase correction derived from a reference location in a SAR image to correct ionospheric effects across the image. A dataset of SAR images and GPS measurements collected simultaneously on Ascension Island were used to test two techniques for deriving ionospheric strength of turbulence (C\(_k\)L) from SAR images – one using measurements of trihedral corner reflectors (CR) and the other measurements of natural clutter. The CR C\(_k\)L values showed a correlation of 0.69 with GPS estimates of C\(_k\)L, whilst the clutter measurements showed a correlation of up to 0.91 with the CR values. Finally, a study of using the effects of intensity scintillation on SAR images to measure the S\(_4\) index was performed. The study was not able to reproduce previous results, but produced significant practical conclusions.

This work studies the current collected by the spherical Langmuir probes to be mounted on the ESA Swarm satellites in order to quantify deviations from idealized cases caused by non-ideal probe geometry. The finite-element particle-in-cell code SPIS is used to model the current collection of a realistic probe, including the support structures, for two ionospheric plasma conditions with and without drift velocity. SPIS simulations are verified by comparing simulations of an ideal sphere at rest to previous numerical results by Laframboise parametrized to sufficient accuracy. It is found that for probe potentials much above the equivalent electron temperature, the deviations from ideal geometry decrease the current by up to 25 % compared to the ideal sphere case and thus must be corrected if data from this part of the probe curve has to be used for plasma density derivations. In comparison to the non-drifting case, including a plasma ram flow increases the current for probe potentials around and below the equivalent ion energy, as the contribution of the ions to the shielding is reduced by their high flow energy.

Ground-based coherent backscatter radar systems are extensively used to investigate small-scale dynamics in the earth's ionosphere and related geophysical process(es) in the magnetosphere. At high-latitudes, HF radars are used due to the requisite orthogonal condition with the earth's magnetic field lines. Because of the effect of ionospheric refraction on the ray paths, the exact path of the radar signal through the ionosphere is then unknown. In practice, it is important to locate the radar echo sources given the echo parameters, such as group path, elevation angle, and azimuth angle. Furthermore, radar observations consist of direct backscatter from the ground. An uncertainty arises due to the difficulty in separating true ground backscatter from ionospheric scatter which fulfils the radar criteria based on the measured Doppler velocity and spectral width. These problems are investigated in this research using a three-dimensional ray tracing computer programme, Jones3D (Jones and Stephenson, 1975). Some problems in the Jones3D code have been identified and corrected whilst modifications to the code have been made to suit the purpose of this research work. All modelling work presented in this thesis is based on two HF radars, the Halley HF radar in Antarctica and the CUTLASS HF radar in Finland. For the best comparison with radar observations, realistic ionospheric conditions are used. In the case study for the Halley HF radar in Antarctica, it is found that the radar's main propagation mode is one-hop propagation, and that the radar scatter is mostly organised in ranges in the order of E- region scatter, F- region scatter, and ground scatter. The range-bin statistical analysis suggests that the radar criteria based on the measured Doppler velocity and special width are not sufficient, and that the measured range (group path) parameter is important and should be used in separating radar ionospheric echoes from ground backscatter.

Modelling ionospheric total electron content (TEC) is an important area of interest for radio wave propagation, geodesy, surveying, the understanding of space weather dynamics and error correction in relation to Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNNS) applications. With the utilisation of improved ionosonde technology coupled with the use of GNSS, the response of technological systems due to changes in the ionosphere during both quiet and disturbed conditions can be historically inferred. TEC values are usually derived from GNSS measurements using mathematically intensive algorithms. However, the techniques used to estimate these TEC values depend heavily on the availability of near-real time GNSS data, and therefore, are sometimes unable to generate complete datasets. This thesis investigated possibilities for the modelling of TEC values derived from the South African Global Positioning System (GPS)receiver network using linear regression methods and artificial neural networks (NNs). GPS TEC values were derived using the Adjusted Spherical Harmonic Analysis (ASHA) algorithm. Considering TEC and the factors that influence its variability as “dependent and independent variables” respectively, the capabilities of linear regression methods and NNs for TEC modelling were first investigated using a small dataset from two GPS receiver stations. NN and regression models were separately developed and used to reproduce TEC fluctuations at different stations not included in the models’ development. For this purpose, TEC was modelled as a function of diurnal variation, seasonal variation, solar and magnetic activities. Comparative analysis showed that NN models provide predictions of GPS TEC that were an improvement on those predicted by the regression models developed. A separate study to empirically investigate the effects of solar wind on GPS TEC was carried out. Quantitative results indicated that solar wind does not have a significant influence on TEC variability. The final TEC simulation model developed makes use of the NN technique to find the relationship between historical TEC data variations and factors that are known to influence TEC variability (such as solar and magnetic activities, diurnal and seasonal variations and the geographical locations of the respective GPS stations) for the purposes of regional TEC modelling and mapping. The NN technique in conjunction with interpolation and extrapolation methods makes it possible to construct ionospheric TEC maps and to analyse the spatial and temporal TEC behaviour over Southern Africa. For independent validation, modelled TEC values were compared to ionosonde TEC and the International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) generated TEC values during both quiet and disturbed conditions. This thesis provides a comprehensive guide on the development of TEC models for predicting ionospheric variability over the South African region, and forms a significant contribution to ionospheric modelling efforts in Africa.

The Interplanetary Magnetic Field (IMF) has a controlling effect on the Magnetosphere and Ionosphere. The objective in this work is to investigate the probable effects of IMF on Ionospheric and Geomagnetic response. To fulfill the objective the concept of an event has been created based on the polarity reversals and rate of change of the interplanetary magnetic field components, Bz and By. Superposed Epoch Method (SPE) was employed with the three event definitions, which are based on IMF Bz southward turnings ranging from 6 to 11 nT in order to quantify the effects of IMF By and Bz. For the first event only IMF Bz turnings were taken into account while for the remaining, positive and negative polarity for IMF By were added. Results showed that the increase in the magnitude of IMF Bz turnings increased the drop of F layer critical frequency, f0F2. The drop was almost linear with the increase in magnitude of polarity reversals. Reversals with a positive IMF By has resulted in the continuation of geomagnetic activity more than 4 days, that is to say, the energy, that has penetrated as a consequence of reversal with a positive By polarity, was stored in outer Magnetosphere,whereas, with a negative IMF By the energy was consumed in a small time scale. At the second step of the work, although conclusions about geomagnetic activity could be done, as a consequence of data gaps for f0F2 in addition to having low numbers of events, characterization of f0F2 due to constant IMF By polarity could not be accomplished. Thus, a modeling attempt for the characterization of the response due to polarity reversals of IMF components with the Genetic Programming was carried out. Four models were constructed for different polarity reversal cases and they were used as the components of one general unique model. The model is designed in such a way that given 3 consecutive value of f0F2, IMF By and IMF Bz, the model can forecast one hour ahead value of f0F2. The overall model, GETY-IYON was successful at a normalized error of 7.3%.

In this thesis, various pilot symbol aided channel estimation and tracking methods are investigated and their performances are compared for an OFDM system with packet based communication on HF channel. For the HF channel, Watterson HF channel model is used. The compared methods are least squares (LS) channel estimation, linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE) channel estimation, least mean squares (LMS) channel tracking, recursive least squares (RLS) channel tracking, constant position model based Kalman filter channel tracking, and constant velocity model based Kalman filter channel tracking. For LMS and RLS methods some adaptive approaches are also investigated.

L'étude de la propagation des ondes électromagnétiques en bandes hautes (HF) et très hautes fréquences (VHF) dans l'ionosphère gagne en intérêt avec l'essor des technologies de communication et de positionnement par satellites. Cependant, la transmission des signaux associés est dépendante du milieu qu'ils traversent : l'ionosphère. Cette partie de l'atmosphère terrestre (entre 60 et 2,000 km d'altitude) est composée d'un plasma partiellement ionisé, formé par la photo-dissociation des composants neutres par le rayonnement solaire X et UV et impacte la propagation des ondes radios du fait de son pouvoir réfractant. Ma thèse a consisté à développer un code de tracé de rayons capable de résoudre les trajectoires des ondes radios HF et VHF dans une ionosphère réaliste. Pour cela, j'ai développé un système d'équations permettant de résoudre la trajectoire d'une onde à partir du principe de Fermat ainsi que divers paramètres associés aux ondes et au milieu traversé (temps de propagation, indice de réfraction, absorption, le contenu total d'électrons TEC). Un modèle de champ magnétique dipolaire tilté est également implémenté et permet de résoudre les modes de propagation ordinaire et extraordinaire. Dans une première application, j'ai utilisé ce code de tracé de rayons pour simuler un radar trans-horizon à haute latitude, de type SuperDARN. Dans un premier temps, j'ai étudié la propagation des ondes dans des profils d'ionosphère synthétiques présentant différents types de gradients. J'ai montré qu'une ionosphère présentant une région E développée contraint les régions possibles d'échos à basse altitude et absorbe modérément à fortement les ondes en fonction de la distance parcourue. Lorsque la région E est peu développée, les ondes se propagent vers des altitudes supérieures et forment des régions d'échos avec une large extension en altitude. L'absorption des ondes est également plus faible. L'introduction de gradient horizontaux a montré que les formes des régions d'échos ne changeaient pas fondamentalement mais entrainent un déplacement en distance par rapport au radar de ces régions. Dans un second temps, j'ai utilisé les résultats de cette étude préliminaire pour analyser la propagation modélisée dans un profil d'ionosphère réaliste. Dans une seconde application, j'ai étudié les modes de propagation ordinaire et extraordinaire, dans en premier temps en modélisant le mode de fonctionnement d'une ionosonde. Cet instrument permet d'estimer le profil local de la densité électronique jusqu'au pic de région F. Les simulations effectuées avec le tracé de rayons ont permis de reproduire les différences de propagation (temps de propagation, altitude des échos) entre ces modes de propagation dans le cas d'une propagation parallèle au champ magnétique. [...]
Radio wave propagation in high and very high frequency bands is a major subject of interest; mainly because of the rise of telecommunication and GPS technologies. Although, the effective transmission of these signals highly depends on the medium. There is a part of the neutral atmosphere, named ionosphere and located approximately between 60 and 2,000 km, which impact the wave propagation as it is composed of a partially ionised plasma. It is formed through the photo-ionization of neutral species by the solar UV and EUV spectrum. During my Ph.D., my first achievement was to develop a ray tracing tool to solve the HF and VHF radio wave trajectories in a realistic ionosphere. It is based on numerical development of the Fermat's Principle which allows trajectory modelling. To give more insight information on wave propagation, this tool also integrates some wave parameters such as propagation time, total electron content TEC and absorption. A simple tilted dipole magnetic field is implemented, which allow the ordinary and extraordinary propagation mode modelling. As a first application, I used this ray tracing tool to model a SuperDARN coherent HF radar. These radars are dedicated to the observation and study of the high latitude plasma convection. First, I studied the radio wave propagation in synthetic ionosphere profiles, featuring different types of electron density gradients. I have shown that ionosphere profile with a developed E region implies low altitude refraction for waves with low elevation angles and moderate to high absorption. For ionosphere profile with lower density E region, wave may propagate to higher altitude and form echoes region spanning across the F region, while being less absorbed. While adding horizontal electron density gradient in these ionosphere profiles, I have shown that the echoes region keep the same pattern but are shifted in distance respect to the radar. Then, I used these results to study the wave propagation in a realistic ionosphere featuring complex electron density gradients. As a second application, I studied the magnetic field effect on radio wave propagation by modelling the ordinary and extraordinary propagation modes in the case of a ionosonde. It is an instrument dedicated to the sounding of the local vertical electron density profile below the F region peak. In the case of a parallel propagation with respect to the magnetic field, the ray tracing tool modelled the expected behaviour for both propagation modes, in terms of different altitude of reflection and different propagation speed. While modelling ordinary and extraordinary modes in the case of a SuperDARN radar, I have shown that the magnetic field effect was negligible as the propagation is almost perpendicular respect to the magnetic field. [...]

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Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)
PPP (Precise Point Positioning) is a positioning method by GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems), based on SSR (State Space Representation) concept that can provide centimeter accuracy solutions. Real-time PPP (RT-PPP) is possible thanks to the availability of precise products, for orbits and clocks, provided by the International GNSS Service (IGS), as well as by its analysis centers such as CNES (Center National d'Etudes Spatiales). One of the remaining challenges on RT-PPP is the mitigation of atmospheric effects (troposphere and ionosphere) on GNSS signals. Thanks to recent improvements in atmospheric models, RT-PPP can be enhanced, allowing accuracy and centimeter initialization time, comparable to the current NRTK (Network Real-Time Kinematic) method. Such performance depends on topology of permanent stations networks and atmospheric conditions. The main objective of this project is to study the RT-PPP and the optimized infrastructure in terms of costs and benefits to realize the method using atmospheric corrections. Therefore, different configurations of a dense and regular GNSS network existing in France, the Orpheon network, are used. This network has about 160 sites and is owned by Geodata-Diffusion (Hexagon Geosystems). The work was divided into two main stages. Initially, ‘float PPP-RTK’ was evaluated, it corresponds to RT-PPP with improvements resulting from network corrections, although with ambiguities kept float. Further on, network corrections are applied to improve “PPP-RTK” where ambiguities are fixed to their integer values. For the float PPP-RTK, a modified version of the RTKLib 2.4.3 (beta) package is used to take into account for the network corrections. First-order ionospheric effects were eliminated by the iono-free combination and zenith tropospheric delay estimated. The corrections were applied by introducing a priori constrained tropospheric parameters. Periods with different tropospheric conditions were chosen to carry out the study. Adaptive modeling based on OFCs (Optimal Fitting Coefficients) has been developed to describe the behavior of the troposphere, using estimates of tropospheric delays for Orpheon stations. This solution allows one-way communication between the server and the user. The quality of tropospheric corrections is evaluated by comparison to external tropospheric products. The gains achieved in convergence time to 10 centimeters accuracy were statistically quantified. Network topology was assessed by reducing the number of reference stations (up to 75%) using a sparse Orpheon network configuration to perform tropospheric modeling. This did not degrade the tropospheric corrections and similar performances were obtained on the user side. In the second step, PPP-RTK is realized using the PPP-Wizard 1.3 software and CNES real-time products for orbits, clocks and phase biases of satellites. RT-IPPP (Real-Time Integer PPP) is performed with estimation of tropospheric and ionospheric delays. Ionospheric and tropospheric corrections are introduced as a priori parameters constrained to the PPP-RTK of the user. To generate ionospheric corrections, it was implemented a solution aligned with RTCM (Real-Time Maritime Services) conventions, regarding the transmission of ionospheric parameters SSR, which is a standard Inverse Distance Weighting (IDW) algorithm. The choice of the periods for this experiment was made mainly with respect to the ionospheric activity. The comparison of the atmospheric corrections with the external products and the evaluation of different network topologies (dense and sparse) were also carried out in this stage. Statistically, the standard RT-IPPP takes ~ 25 min to achieve a 10 cm horizontal accuracy, which is significantly improved by our method: 46% (convergence in 14 min) with dense network corrections and 24% (convergence in 19 min) with the sparse network. Nevertheless, vertical positioning sees its convergence time slightly increased, especially when corrections are used from a sparse network solution. However, improvements in horizontal positioning due to external SSR corrections from a (dense or sparse) network are promising and may be useful for applications that depend primarily on horizontal positioning.
O PPP (Precise Point Positioning) é um método de posicionamento pelo GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems), baseado no conceito SSR (State Space Representation) o qual pode fornecer soluções de acurácia centimétrica. O PPP em tempo real (RT-PPP) é possível graças à disponibilidade de produtos precisos, para órbitas e relógios, fornecidos pelo IGS (International GNSS Service), bem como por seus centros de análise, como o CNES (Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales). Um dos desafios restantes no RT-PPP é a mitigação dos efeitos atmosféricos (troposfera e ionosfera) nos sinais GNSS. Graças às melhorias recentes nos modelos atmosféricos, o RT-PPP pode ser aprimorado, permitindo tempo de inicialização com acurácia centimétrica, comparável ao atual método NRTK (Network Real-Time Kinematic). Esse desempenho depende da topologia das redes de estações permanentes e das condições atmosféricas. O objetivo principal deste projeto é estudar o RT-PPP e a infraestrutura optimizada em termos de custos e benefícios para realizar o método usando correções atmosféricas. Portanto, são utilizadas diferentes configurações de uma rede GNSS densa e regular existente na França, a rede Orphéon. Esta rede tem cerca de 160 estações, sendo propriedade da Geodata-Diffusion (Hexagon Geosystems). O trabalho foi dividido em duas etapas principais. Inicialmente, foi avaliado o "float PPP-RTK", que corresponde ao RT-PPP com melhorias resultantes de correções de rede, embora mantendo as ambiguidades como float. Em um segundo momento, as correções de rede são aplicadas para aprimorar o "PPP-RTK", onde ambiguidades são fixadas para seus valores inteiros. Para o float PPP-RTK, uma versão modificada do software RTKLib 2.4.3 (beta) é empregada de modo a levar em consideração as correções de rede. Os efeitos ionosféricos de primeira ordem são eliminados pela combinação iono-free e atraso zenital troposférico é estimado. As correções são aplicadas introduzindo parâmetros troposféricos a priori injuncionados. Períodos com diferentes condições troposféricas foram escolhidos para realizar o estudo. Uma modelagem adaptativa baseada em OFCs (Optimal Fitting Coefficients) foi implementada para descrever o comportamento da troposfera, utilizando estimativas de atraso troposférico para estações da rede Orphéon. Tal solução permite a comunicação unidirecional entre o servidor e o usuário. A qualidade das correções troposféricas foi avaliada através de comparação com produtos externos troposféricos. Os ganhos alcançados no tempo de convergência para acurácia de 10 centímetros foram quantificados estatisticamente. A topologia de rede foi avaliada reduzindo o número de estações de referência (em até 75%) usando uma configuração da rede Orphéon esparsa para realizar a modelagem troposférica. Isso não degradou as correções troposféricas e foram obtidas performances similares para os usuários simulados. Na segunda etapa, o PPP-RTK é realizado usando o software PPP-Wizard 1.3, bem como os produtos para tempo real do CNES de órbitas, relógios e biases de fase dos satélites. O RT-IPPP (Real-Time Integer PPP) é realizado com estimativa de atrasos troposféricos e ionosféricos. As correções ionosféricas e troposféricas são introduzidas como parâmetros a priori injuncionados no PPP-RTK do usuário. Para gerar correções ionosféricas, foi implementada uma solução alinhada com as convenções RTCM (Real-Time Maritime Services), em relação à transmissão de correções ionosféricas SSR, o qual é um algoritmo baseado na ponderação pelo inverso da distância (IDW – Inverse Distance Weighting). A escolha dos períodos para este experimento foi realizada principalmente em relação à atividade ionosférica. A comparação das correções atmosféricas com produtos externos, assim como a avaliação de diferentes topologias de rede (densa e esparsa) também foram realizadas nesta etapa. Estatisticamente, o RT-IPPP padrão leva ~ 25 min para alcançar uma acurácia horizontal de 10 cm, a qual é significativamente melhorada pelo método implementado: 46% (convergência em 14 min) com correções de rede densa e 24% (convergência em 19 min) com a rede esparsa. No entanto, o posicionamento vertical vê o seu tempo de convergência ligeiramente aumentado, especialmente quando as correções são usadas a partir de uma solução de rede esparsa. No entanto, as melhorias no posicionamento horizontal com o uso das correções de SSR externas de uma rede (densa ou esparsa) são promissoras e podem ser úteis para aplicações que dependem principalmente do posicionamento horizontal.
Le PPP (Precise Point Positioning) est une méthode de positionnement par GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems), basée sur le concept SSR (State Space Representation), qui peut générer solutions de précision centimétrique. Le PPP en temps réel (RT-PPP) est possible grâce à la disponibilité des produits précis, pour les orbites et horloges, fournis par l’IGS (International GNSS Service), ainsi que par ses centres d'analyse, tels que le CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales). Un des défis restants sur le RT-PPP est la mitigation des effets atmosphériques (troposphère et ionosphère) sur les signaux GNSS. Grâce aux améliorations récentes des modèles atmosphériques, le RT-PPP peut être amélioré, ce qui permet une précision et un temps d'initialisation au niveau du centimètre, comparables à la méthode NRTK (Network Real-Time Kinematic) actuelle. De telles performances dépendent de la topologie du réseau de stations GNSS permanentes et des conditions atmosphériques. L'objectif principal de ce projet est d'étudier le RT-PPP et l'infrastructure optimisée en termes de coûts et d'avantages pour réaliser la méthode en utilisant des corrections atmosphériques. Pour cela, différentes configurations d'un réseau GNSS dense et régulier existant en France, le réseau Orphéon, sont utilisées. Ce réseau compte environ 160 sites, propriété de Geodata-Diffusion (Hexagon Geosystems). Le travail est divisé en deux étapes principales. Dans un premier temps, le mode «PPP-RTK flottant» a été évalué, il correspond au RT-PPP avec des améliorations issues des corrections de réseau, mais avec les ambiguïtés flottantes. Ensuite, des corrections de réseau sont appliquées pour améliorer le mode « PPP-RTK » où les ambiguïtés sont fixées à leurs valeurs entières. Pour le PPP-RTK flottant, une version modifiée du package RTKLib 2.4.3 (beta) est utilisée pour prendre en compte les corrections réseau. Les effets ionosphériques de premier ordre ont été éliminés par la combinaison iono-free et le retard troposphérique zénithal est estimé. Les corrections ont été appliquées en introduisant des paramètres troposphériques a priori contraints. Des périodes avec différentes conditions troposphériques ont été choisies pour réaliser l'étude. Une modélisation adaptative basée sur les OFCs (Optimal Fitting Coefficients) a été mise en place pour décrire le comportement de la troposphère, en utilisant des estimations des retards troposphériques pour les stations Orphéon. Cette solution permet une communication mono-directionnelle entre le serveur et l'utilisateur. La qualité des corrections troposphériques est évaluée par comparaison avec des produits troposphériques externes. Les gains réalisés sur le temps de convergence pour obtenir un positionnement de 10 centimètres de précision ont été quantifiés statistiquement. La topologie du réseau a été évaluée, en réduisant le nombre de stations de référence (jusqu'à 75%), via une configuration de réseau Orphéon lâche pour effectuer la modélisation troposphérique. Cela n'a pas dégradé les corrections troposphériques et des performances similaires ont été obtenues du côté de l'utilisateur. Dans la deuxième étape, le PPP-RTK est réalisé grâce au logiciel PPP-Wizard 1.3 et avec les produits temps réel CNES pour les orbites, les horloges et les biais de phase des satellites. Le RT-IPPP (Real-Time Integer PPP) est réalisé avec estimation des délais troposphériques et ionosphériques. Les corrections ionosphériques et troposphériques sont introduites en tant que paramètres a priori contraints au PPP-RTK de l'utilisateur. Pour générer des corrections ionosphériques, il a été mis en place une solution alignée avec les conventions RTCM (Real-Time Maritime Services) pour la transmission des paramètres ionosphériques SSR, un algorithme standard d'interpolation à distance inversée (IDW – Inverse Distance Weighting). Le choix des périodes pour cette expérience a été fait principalement en regard de l'activité ionosphérique. La comparaison des corrections atmosphériques avec les produits externes et l'évaluation de différentes topologies de réseau (dense et lâche) ont également été effectuées dans cette étape. Statistiquement le RT-IPPP standard prend ~25 min pour atteindre une précision horizontale de 10 cm, ce que nous améliorons significativement par notre méthode : 46% (convergence en 14 min) avec le réseau dense et 24% (convergence en 19 min) avec le réseau restreint. Néanmoins le positionnement vertical voit son temps de convergence légèrement augmenté, en particulier lorsque l'on utilise des corrections à partir d'une solution de réseau lâche. Cependant, les améliorations apportées au positionnement horizontal dues aux corrections atmosphériques SSR externes provenant d’un réseau (dense ou lâche) sont prometteuses et peuvent être utiles pour les applications qui dépendent principalement du positionnement horizontal.
CNPq: 229828/2013-2

abstract: The goal is to provide accurate measurement of the channel between a ground source and a receiving satellite. The effects of the the ionosphere for ground to space propagation for radio waves in the 3-30 MHz HF band is an unstudied subject. The effects of the ionosphere on radio propagation is a long studied subject, the primary focus has been ground to ground by means of ionospheric reflection and space to ground corrections of ionospheric distortions of GPS. Because of the plasma properties of the ionosphere there is a strong dependence on the frequency of use. GPS L1 1575.42 MHz and L2 1227.60 MHz are much less effected than the 3-30 MHz HF band used for skywave propagation. The channel between the ground transmitter and the satellite receiver is characterized by 2 unique polarization modes with respective delays and Dopplers. Accurate estimates of delay and Doppler are done using polynomial fit functions. The application of polarimetric separation of the two propagating polarizations allows improved estimate quality of delay and Doppler of the respective mode. These methods yield good channel models and an effective channel estimation method well suited for the ground to space propagation.
Dissertation/Thesis
Masters Thesis Electrical Engineering 2017

博士
國立中興大學
土木工程學系所
102
At present, all proposed method for ionospheric vertical total electron content (VTEC) and electron density (ED) modeling using GNSS could be classified into two different categories: function-based and pixel-based. The key point of function-based method is to select an appropriate mathematical function for the distribution of ionospheric VTEC or ionospheric ED over modeling region thus effectively estimates the differential code bias of the receiver (RDCB), the differential code bias of the satellite (SDCB), VTEC or ED. However, the ionosphere not only varies periodically with the time and space, but also has short-term irregular disturbances because of solar activity and geomagnetic variations. The same function model is therefore unlikely to fit different ionospheric behaviors. And it has always bothered researchers for the selection of mathematical function with appropriate degree and order over modeling region. In order to solve these problems, this study proposed a novel function-based approach called LS-MARS. The LS-MARS uses Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) from the field of statistical learning to estimate the VTEC or ED approximate model first and then substitutes this model in the observation equation to form the normal equation. The Least Squares Method (LSM) is used to solve the unknown parameters. Compared with the conventional function-based method, the advantage of LS-MARS is that the optimal approximate model can be found automatically, precisely, flexibly and adaptively from the observations using MARS without a priori knowledge of the ionospheric VTEC or ED distribution mathematical function. The LS-MARS can simply construct VTEC (2D, 3D) and ED (3D, 4D) for different dimensions, or higher dimensional ionospheric model since MARS can model high dimensional data. The LS-MARS can enhance the function-based method for modeling performance and convenience and help to further research on the ionosphere. In this paper, the performance and reliability of the regional two-dimensional VTEC and three-dimensional ED modeled by using LS-MARS were studied. The results showed that the LS-MARS has good modeling effectiveness and reliability for modeling regional ionospheric VTEC and ED. Therefore, this method can serve as an attractive and alternative method for researchers in the field of ionosphere.

碩士
國立中央大學
土木工程研究所
89
Satellite surveying with the Global Positioning System (GPS) has shown several advantages over standard surveying techniques. However, because of some unmodeled systematic errors, the possibility of successful ambiguity resolution is poor in the processing of long baseline vectors. Therefore, the methods of modeling ionospheric errors and increasing measurement equations are proposed with multiple reference stations. There are two proposed method of estimating ionospheric delays; one is linear interpolation according to the positions of reference and rover stations, another is the least squares method considering a slant function. On the other hand, a network with several reference points can provide several known positions to form more baselines to rovers, so more degrees of freedom are available by increasing measurement equations of baselines. These baselines would be processed in a matrix system. Finally, for verification, three experiments were carried out. The results show that the proposal concept is helpful to ambiguity resolution and GPS surveying both with L1 frequency and dual-frequency data. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the help of multiple reference stations for GPS surveying.