Tackling ionospheric scintillation threat to GNSS in Latin America

¹ Institute of Engineering Surveying and Space Geodesy, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2RD, UK
² Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Vigna Murata 605, 00143 Rome, Italy
³ Septentrio N. V., Greenhill Campus, Interleuvenlaan 15G, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
⁴ Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia, Departamento de Cartografia, Universidade Estadual Paulista Julio de Mesquita Filho, Rua Roberto Simonsen, 305, Presidente Prudente, SP, Brazil
⁵ Space Research Center, Polish Academy of Sciences, ul. Bartycka18a, 00-716 Warsaw, Poland
⁶ Centre for Atmospheric Research, University of Nova Gorica, Vipavska 13, SI 5000 Nova Gorica, Slovenia
⁷ Pildo Consulting, SL, Parc Tecnològic de Barcelona Nord Office A216-A220, Marie Curie 8-14, 08042 Barcelona, Spain
⁸ Consultgel Consultoria em Geomatica Ltda, Rua Jose Tognoli, 238, Presidente Prudente, SP 19060-370, Brazil

^* corresponding author: e-mail: v.sreeja@gmail.com

Received: 10 February 2011
Accepted: 24 October 2011

Abstract

Scintillations are rapid fluctuations in the phase and amplitude of transionospheric radio signals which are caused by small-scale plasma density irregularities in the ionosphere. In the case of the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers, scintillation can cause cycle slips, degrade the positioning accuracy and, when severe enough, can even lead to a complete loss of signal lock. Thus, the required levels of availability, accuracy, integrity and reliability for the GNSS applications may not be met during scintillation occurrence; this poses a major threat to a large number of modern-day GNSS-based applications. The whole of Latin America, Brazil in particular, is located in one of the regions most affected by scintillations. These effects will be exacerbated during solar maxima, the next predicted for 2013. This paper presents initial results from a research work aimed to tackle ionospheric scintillation effects for GNSS users in Latin America. This research is a part of the CIGALA (Concept for Ionospheric Scintillation Mitigation for Professional GNSS in Latin America) project, co-funded by the EC Seventh Framework Program and supervised by the GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA), which aims to develop and test ionospheric scintillation countermeasures to be implemented in multi-frequency, multi-constellation GNSS receivers.