Apparatus and method for ionospheric mapping
First Claim
1. An apparatus for producing an atmospheric ionospheric map comprising:
- means for receiving compressed digital data in a binary code format from a plurality of global positioning system (GPS) satellites said data defining the satellite operating parameters;
means for decompressing the satellite operational data and converting it to an ASCII code;
means for adjusting the ASCII coded data for any out of phase data;
means for computing a slant range total electron content (TEC);
means for computing a vertical total electron content (VTEC) of the ionosphere so as to produce an ionospheric map; and
means for displaying the ionospheric map.
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Abstract
This invention is a unique single-site method of determining the local total electron content (TEC) of the ionosphere and its space-time variation using a global positioning system (GPS) ionospheric receiver. The TEC of the ionosphere is specified in terms of a space-time map of the local TEC in the vicinity of the receiver. Differential group and phase path data between two L-band frequencies (L1 and L2) for a plurality of the GPS satellites in view of the receiver station are analyzed by a least squares technique to extract both the ten parameters of a full second order space-time polynomial expansion for the vertical TEC (VTEC) and the differential delay biases associated with the space vehicles (SVs). The method is applicable to day and nighttime data.
35 Citations
9 Claims
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1. An apparatus for producing an atmospheric ionospheric map comprising:
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means for receiving compressed digital data in a binary code format from a plurality of global positioning system (GPS) satellites said data defining the satellite operating parameters; means for decompressing the satellite operational data and converting it to an ASCII code; means for adjusting the ASCII coded data for any out of phase data; means for computing a slant range total electron content (TEC); means for computing a vertical total electron content (VTEC) of the ionosphere so as to produce an ionospheric map; and means for displaying the ionospheric map. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
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5. A method for constructing an ionospheric map comprising the steps of:
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receiving satellite operating parameters from a global positioning system (GPS) satellites in a compressed digital binary code format; decompressing the compressed digital binary coded satellite operating parameters; converting the binary code format into an ASCII format; storing the ASCII formatted satellite operating parameter for a predetermined period of time; adjusting the ASCII formatted satellite operating parameters for any data out of phase; computing a slant range total electron content (TEC) of the ionosphere from the ASCII formatted satellite operating parameters; repeating the above steps for a plurality of global positioning system satellites; computing a vertical total electron content (VTEC) using inverse least squares method modelling of the temporal and spatial behavior of the atmosphere to second order; and displaying an x-y-z plot of the vertical total electron content (VTEC) in reference to a latitude and longitude of an observing station to produce a local ionospheric map. - View Dependent Claims (6, 7)
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8. An apparatus for producing an atmospheric ionospheric map comprising:
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means for receiving compressed digital data in a binary code format from a plurality of global positioning system (GPS) satellites said data defining the satellite operating parameters; means for decompressing the satellite operational data and converting it to an ASCII code; means for adjusting the ASCII coded data to remove any ambiguity in the satellite operational data; means for computing a slant range total electron content (TEC) of the ionosphere; means for computing a vertical total electron content (VTEC) of the ionosphere; means for plotting the slant range total electron content versus vertical total electron content to produce an ionospheric map; and means for displaying the ionospheric map.
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9. A method for constructing an ionospheric map comprising the steps of:
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receiving satellite operational parameters from at least one global positioning system (GPS) satellite in a compressed digital binary code format; decompressing the compressed digital binary coded satellite operating parameters; converting the binary code format into an ASCII format; storing the ASCII formatted satellite operating parameters for a predetermined period of time; adjusting the ASCII formatted satellite operating parameters for to remove any ambiguity in the satellite operating parameters; computing a slant range total electron content (TEC) of the ionosphere from the ASCII formatted satellite operating parameters; repeating the above steps for a plurality of global positioning system satellites; computing a vertical total electron content (VTEC) using inverse least squares method modelling of temporal and spatial behavior of the atmosphere to second order; plotting the slant range total electron content versus vertical total electron content to produce an ionospheric map; and displaying an x-y-z plot of the vertical total electron content (VTEC) in reference to a latitude and longitude of an observing station to produce a local ionospheric map.
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Specification