Observations of low-elevation ionospheric anomalies for ground-based augmentation of GNSS

Abstract

Extreme ionospheric anomalies occurring during severe ionospheric activity can pose an integrity threat to users of Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Ground Based Augmentation Systems (GBAS). While most very large spatial gradients in slant ionospheric delay were observed on high-elevation satellites, several extreme gradients were also observed on satellites below 15 degrees elevation. This paper details the study of anomalous ionospheric spatial gradients for low-elevation satellites observed from the 20 November 2003 geomagnetic storm in the Conterminous United States (CONUS). As viewed by a cluster of Continuously Operating Reference Stations (CORS) receivers in northern Ohio, SVN 26 came into view around 20: 30 Universal Time (UT) on this day, rose to an elevation angle of about 15 degrees, and set around 22: 00 UT. A spatial gradient of 360 mm/km was discovered at 21: 20 UT between CORS stations GARF and WOOS, when SVN 26 was at 11 degrees elevation. Ionospheric delay measurements are vulnerable to semi-codeless L2 tracking errors and data post-processing errors, especially when satellites are at low elevation. This paper presents a series of methods to validate observed ionospheric anomaly events using station-wide checks, satellite-wide checks, and manual verification with single-frequency measurements. Spatial gradients discovered at other station pairs and another low elevation satellite with a similar azimuth angle, SVN 29, support that the event of SVN 26 is an ionospheric anomaly as opposed to a receiver fault.