scholarly journals Systematic residual ionospheric errors in radio occultation data and a potential way to minimize them

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. 2169-2179 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Danzer ◽  
B. Scherllin-Pirscher ◽  
U. Foelsche
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
Solar Cycle ◽  
Radio Occultation ◽  
Simulated Data ◽  
Correction Method ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
Neutral Atmosphere ◽  
Atmospheric Parameters ◽  
Ionospheric Correction ◽  
Bending Angle

Abstract. Radio occultation (RO) sensing is used to probe the earth's atmosphere in order to obtain information about its physical properties. With a main interest in the parameters of the neutral atmosphere, there is the need to perform a correction of the ionospheric contribution to the bending angle. Since this correction is an approximation to first order, there exists an ionospheric residual, which can be expected to be larger when the ionization is high (day versus night, high versus low solar activity). The ionospheric residual systematically affects the accuracy of the atmospheric parameters at low altitudes, at high altitudes (above 25–30 km) it even is an important error source. In climate applications this could lead to a time dependent bias which induces wrong trends in atmospheric parameters at high altitudes. The first goal of our work was to study and characterize this systematic residual error. In a second step we developed a simple correction method, based purely on observational data, to reduce this residual for large ensembles of RO profiles. In order to tackle this problem, we analyzed the bending angle bias of CHAMP and COSMIC RO data from 2001–2011. We could observe that the nighttime bending angle bias stays constant over the whole period of 11 yr, while the daytime bias increases from low to high solar activity. As a result, the difference between nighttime and daytime bias increases from about −0.05 μrad to −0.4 μrad. This behavior paves the way to correct the solar cycle dependent bias of daytime RO profiles. In order to test the newly developed correction method we performed a simulation study, which allowed to separate the influence of the ionosphere and the neutral atmosphere. Also in the simulated data we observed a similar increase in the bias in times from low to high solar activity. In this simulation we performed the climatological ionospheric correction of the bending angle data, by using the bending angle bias characteristics of a solar cycle as a correction factor. After the climatological ionospheric correction the bias of the simulated data improved significantly, not only in the bending angle but also in the retrieved temperature profiles.

scholarly journals Systematic residual ionospheric errors in radio occultation data and a potential way to minimize them

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1979-2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Danzer ◽  
B. Scherllin-Pirscher ◽  
U. Foelsche
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
Solar Cycle ◽  
Radio Occultation ◽  
Simulated Data ◽  
Correction Method ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
Neutral Atmosphere ◽  
Atmospheric Parameters ◽  
Ionospheric Correction ◽  
Bending Angle

Abstract. Radio Occultation (RO) sensing is used to probe the Earth's atmosphere in order to obtain information about its physical properties. With a main interest in the parameters of the neutral atmosphere, there is the need to perform a correction of the ionospheric contribution to the bending angle. Since this correction is an approximation to first order, there exists an ionospheric residual, which can be expected to be larger when the ionization is high (day versus night, high versus low solar activity). The ionospheric residual systematically affects the accuracy of the atmospheric parameters at low altitudes, at high altitudes (above 25 km to 30 km) it even is an important error source. In climate applications this could lead to a time dependent bias which induces wrong trends in atmospheric parameters at high altitudes. The first goal of our work was to study and characterize this systematic residual error. In a second step we developed a simple correction method, based purely on observational data, to reduce this residual for large ensembles of RO profiles. In order to tackle this problem we analyzed the bending angle bias of CHAMP and COSMIC RO data from 2001 to 2011. We could observe that the night time bending angle bias stays constant over the whole period of 11 yr, while the day time bias increases from low to high solar activity. As a result, the difference between night and day time bias increases from about −0.05 μrad to −0.4 μrad. This behavior paves the way to correct the solar cycle dependent bias of day time RO profiles. In order to test the newly developed correction method we performed a simulation study, which allowed to separate the influence of the ionosphere and the neutral atmosphere. Also in the simulated data we observed a similar increase in the bias in times from low to high solar activity. In this model world we performed the climatological ionospheric correction of the bending angle data, by using the bending angle bias characteristics of a solar cycle as a correction factor. After the climatological ionospheric correction the bias of the simulated data improved significantly, not only in the bending angle but also in the retrieved temperature profiles.

scholarly journals Ionospheric correction of GPS radio occultation data in the troposphere

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-346 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Zeng ◽  
S. Sokolovskiy ◽  
W. Schreiner ◽  
D. Hunt ◽  
J. Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radio Occultation ◽  
Neutral Atmosphere ◽  
Ionospheric Correction ◽  
Bending Angle ◽  
Gps Radio Occultation ◽  
Strong Inversion ◽  
Occultation Data ◽  
Horizontal Inhomogeneity ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
Bending Angles

Abstract. For inversions of the GPS radio occultation (RO) data in the neutral atmosphere, this study investigates an optimal transition height for replacing the standard ionospheric correction using the linear combination of the L1 and L2 bending angles with the correction of the L1 bending angle by the L1–L2 bending angle extrapolated from above. The optimal transition height depends on the RO mission (i.e., the receiver and firmware) and is different between rising and setting occultations and between L2P and L2C GPS signals. This height is within the range of approximately 10–20 km. One fixed transition height, which can be used for the processing of currently available GPS RO data, can be set to 20 km. Analysis of the L1CA and the L2C bending angles shows that in some occultations the errors of standard ionospheric correction substantially increase around the strong inversion layers (such as the top of the boundary layer). This error increase is modeled and explained by the horizontal inhomogeneity of the ionosphere.

scholarly journals Quantifying residual ionospheric errors in GNSS radio occultation bending angles based on ensembles of profiles from end-to-end simulations

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 2999-3019 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. L. Liu ◽  
G. Kirchengast ◽  
K. Zhang ◽  
R. Norman ◽  
Y. Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
Spherical Symmetry ◽  
Radio Occultation ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
High Latitudes ◽  
Ionospheric Correction ◽  
Bending Angle ◽  
End To End ◽  
Standard Deviations ◽  
Bending Angles

Abstract. The radio occultation (RO) technique using signals from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), in particular from the Global Positioning System (GPS) so far, is currently widely used to observe the atmosphere for applications such as numerical weather prediction and global climate monitoring. The ionosphere is a major error source in RO measurements at stratospheric altitudes, and a linear ionospheric correction of dual-frequency RO bending angles is commonly used to remove the first-order ionospheric effect. However, the residual ionospheric error (RIE) can still be significant so that it needs to be further mitigated for high-accuracy applications, especially above about 30 km altitude where the RIE is most relevant compared to the magnitude of the neutral atmospheric bending angle. Quantification and careful analyses for better understanding of the RIE is therefore important for enabling benchmark-quality stratospheric RO retrievals. Here we present such an analysis of bending angle RIEs covering the stratosphere and mesosphere, using quasi-realistic end-to-end simulations for a full-day ensemble of RO events. Based on the ensemble simulations we assessed the variation of bending angle RIEs, both biases and standard deviations, with solar activity, latitudinal region and with or without the assumption of ionospheric spherical symmetry and co-existing observing system errors. We find that the bending angle RIE biases in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere, and in all latitudinal zones from low to high latitudes, have a clear negative tendency and a magnitude increasing with solar activity, which is in line with recent empirical studies based on real RO data although we find smaller bias magnitudes, deserving further study in the future. The maximum RIE biases are found at low latitudes during daytime, where they amount to within −0.03 to −0.05 μrad, the smallest at high latitudes (0 to −0.01 μrad; quiet space weather and winter conditions). Ionospheric spherical symmetry or asymmetries about the RO event location have only a minor influence on RIE biases. The RIE standard deviations are markedly increased both by ionospheric asymmetries and increasing solar activity and amount to about 0.3 to 0.7 μrad in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere. Taking also into account the realistic observation errors of a modern RO receiving system, amounting globally to about 0.4 μrad (unbiased; standard deviation), shows that the random RIEs are typically comparable to the total observing system error. The results help to inform future RIE mitigation schemes that will improve upon the use of the linear ionospheric correction of bending angles and also provide explicit uncertainty estimates.

scholarly journals Quantifying residual ionospheric errors in GNSS radio occultation bending angles based on ensembles of profiles from end-to-end simulations

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 759-809 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. L. Liu ◽  
G. Kirchengast ◽  
K. Zhang ◽  
R. Norman ◽  
Y. Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
Spherical Symmetry ◽  
Radio Occultation ◽  
Weather Prediction ◽  
High Latitudes ◽  
Ionospheric Correction ◽  
Bending Angle ◽  
Uncertainty Estimates ◽  
End To End ◽  
Bending Angles

Abstract. The radio occultation (RO) technique using signals from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), in particular from the Global Positioning System (GPS) so far, is meanwhile widely used to observe the atmosphere for applications such as numerical weather prediction and global climate monitoring. The ionosphere is a major error source in RO measurements at stratospheric altitudes and a linear ionospheric correction of dual-frequency RO bending angles is commonly used to remove the first-order ionospheric effect. However, the residual ionopheric error (RIE) can still be significant so that it needs to be further mitigated for high accuracy applications, especially above about 30 km altitude where the RIE is most relevant compared to the magnitude of the neutral atmospheric bending angle. Quantification and careful analyses for better understanding of the RIE is therefore important towards enabling benchmark-quality stratospheric RO retrievals. Here we present such an analysis of bending angle RIEs covering the stratosphere and mesosphere, using quasi-realistic end-to-end simulations for a full-day ensemble of RO events. Based on the ensemble simulations we assessed the variation of bending angle RIEs, both biases and SDs, with solar activity, latitudinal region, and with or without the assumption of ionospheric spherical symmetry and of co-existing observing system errors. We find that the bending angle RIE biases in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere, and in all latitudinal zones from low- to high-latitudes, have a clear negative tendency and a magnitude increasing with solar activity, in line with recent empirical studies based on real RO data. The maximum RIE biases are found at low latitudes during daytime, where they amount to with in −0.03 to −0.05 μrad, the smallest at high latitudes (0 to −0.01 μrad; quiet space weather and winter conditions). Ionospheric spherical symmetry or asymmetries about the RO event location have only a minor influence on RIE biases. The RIE SDs are markedly increased both by ionospheric asymmetries and increasing solar activity and amount to about 0.3 to 0.7 μrad in the upper stratosphere and mesosphere. Taking into account also realistic observation errors of a modern RO receiving system, amounting globally to about 0.4 μrad (un-biased; SD), shows that the random RIEs are typically comparable to the total observing system error. The results help to inform future RIE mitigation schemes that will improve upon the use of the linear ionospheric correction of bending angles and that will also provide explicit uncertainty estimates.

scholarly journals Improved model for correcting the ionospheric impact on bending angle in radio occultation measurements

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 2213-2224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew J. Angling ◽  
Sean Elvidge ◽  
Sean B. Healy
Keyword(s):  
Zenith Angle ◽  
Solar Zenith Angle ◽  
Radio Occultation ◽  
Residual Error ◽  
Electron Content ◽  
Neutral Atmosphere ◽  
Ionospheric Correction ◽  
Bending Angle ◽  
Angle Difference ◽  
Bending Angles

Abstract. The standard approach to remove the effects of the ionosphere from neutral atmosphere GPS radio occultation measurements is to estimate a corrected bending angle from a combination of the L1 and L2 bending angles. This approach is known to result in systematic errors and an extension has been proposed to the standard ionospheric correction that is dependent on the squared L1 ∕ L2 bending angle difference and a scaling term (κ). The variation of κ with height, time, season, location and solar activity (i.e. the F10.7 flux) has been investigated by applying a 1-D bending angle operator to electron density profiles provided by a monthly median ionospheric climatology model. As expected, the residual bending angle is well correlated (negatively) with the vertical total electron content (TEC). κ is more strongly dependent on the solar zenith angle, indicating that the TEC-dependent component of the residual error is effectively modelled by the squared L1 ∕ L2 bending angle difference term in the correction. The residual error from the ionospheric correction is likely to be a major contributor to the overall error budget of neutral atmosphere retrievals between 40 and 80 km. Over this height range κ is approximately linear with height. A simple κ model has also been developed. It is independent of ionospheric measurements, but incorporates geophysical dependencies (i.e. solar zenith angle, solar flux, altitude). The global mean error (i.e. bias) and the standard deviation of the residual errors are reduced from -1.3×10-8 and 2.2×10-8 for the uncorrected case to -2.2×10-10 rad and 2.0×10-9 rad, respectively, for the corrections using the κ model. Although a fixed scalar κ also reduces bias for the global average, the selected value of κ (14 rad−1) is only appropriate for a small band of locations around the solar terminator. In the daytime, the scalar κ is consistently too high and this results in an overcorrection of the bending angles and a positive bending angle bias. Similarly, in the nighttime, the scalar κ is too low. However, in this case, the bending angles are already small and the impact of the choice of κ is less pronounced.

scholarly journals Ionospheric correction of GPS radio occultation data in the troposphere

2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (7) ◽  
pp. 7781-7803
Author(s):  
Z. Zeng ◽  
S. Sokolovskiy ◽  
W. Schreiner ◽  
D. Hunt ◽  
J. Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radio Occultation ◽  
Neutral Atmosphere ◽  
Ionospheric Correction ◽  
Bending Angle ◽  
Gps Radio Occultation ◽  
Occultation Data ◽  
L1 And L2 ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Radio Occultation Data ◽  
Bending Angles

Abstract. For inversions of the GPS radio occultation (RO) data in the neutral atmosphere, this study investigates an optimal transition height for replacing the standard ionospheric correction by the linear combination of the L1 and L2 bending angles with the correction of the L1 bending angle by the L1-L2 bending angle extrapolated from above. The optimal transition height depends on the RO mission (i.e., the receiver and firmware) and is different between rising and setting occultations and between L2P and L2C GPS signals. This height is within the range approximately 10–20 km. One fixed transition height, which can be used for the processing of currently available GPS RO data, can be set to 20 km. Analysis of the L1CA and the L2C bending angles in the presence of a sharp top of the boundary layer reveals differences that can be explained by shifts in the impact parameter. The ionosphere-induced vertical shifts of the bending angle profiles require further investigation.

M(3000)F2 and IRI-2012 model at an equatorial latitude in the African sector

2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 49-54
Author(s):  
A.O. Olawepo ◽  
J.O. Adeniyi ◽  
A. Afolabi
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
Solar Cycle ◽  
Correlation Coefficient ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
Equatorial Latitude ◽  
Magnetic Declination ◽  
Two Peaks

We have used ionosonde data from Ouagadougou (Geo. Lat.12.40 N, Long. 358.50, Magnetic declination -5.1320) to study the morphology of M(3000)F2 and to investigate the performance of IRI-12 during 1991 and 1995, years of high and low solar activities respectively. Results show that M(3000)F2 exhibits diurnal and solar cycle characteristics with no distinctive monthly/seasonal features. The two peaks which characterize the diurnal M(3000)F2 during high solar activity (HSA) are reduced to just one (the sunrise peak) during low solar activity (LSA). The study also shows that IRI-12 gives good representations of the observed values of M(3000)F2 with high correlation coefficient, R ranging between 0.9 and 0.95 during LSA and 0.94 and 0.99 during HSA. The model gives its best performance in the months of April irrespective of the solar activity. It either under-estimates or over-estimates the observed values of M(3000)F2 during other months.

scholarly journals Occurrence climatology of equatorial plasma bubbles derived using FormoSat-3 ∕ COSMIC GPS radio occultation data

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 611-623
Author(s):  
Ankur Kepkar ◽  
Christina Arras ◽  
Jens Wickert ◽  
Harald Schuh ◽  
Mahdi Alizadeh ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
Radio Occultation ◽  
Signal To Noise Ratio ◽  
Strong Dependence ◽  
Occurrence Rate ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
Altitudinal Distribution ◽  
Plasma Bubbles ◽  
Ionosphere Plasma ◽  
Equatorial Plasma Bubbles

Abstract. The Global Positioning System – Radio Occultation (GPS-RO) observations from FormoSat-3 ∕ COSMIC are used to comprehend the global distribution of equatorial plasma bubbles which are characterized by depletion regions of plasma in the F region of the ionosphere. Plasma bubbles that cause intense scintillation of the radio signals are identified based on the S4 index derived from the 1 Hz raw signal-to-noise ratio measurements between 2007 and 2017. The analyses revealed that bubbles influenced by background plasma density occurred along the geomagnetic equator and had an occurrence peak around the dip equator during high solar activity. The peak shifted between the African and American sectors, depending on different solar conditions. Plasma bubbles usually developed around 19:00 local time (LT), with maximum occurrence around 21:00 LT during solar maximum and ∼22:00 LT during solar minimum. The occurrence of bubbles showed a strong dependence on longitudes, seasons, and solar cycle with the peak occurrence rate in the African sector around the March equinox during high solar activity, which is consistent with previous studies. The GPS-RO technique allows an extended analysis of the altitudinal distribution of global equatorial plasma bubbles obtained from high vertical resolution profiles, thus making it a convenient tool which could be further used with other techniques to provide a comprehensive view of such ionospheric irregularities.

scholarly journals Cosmic-ray propagation around the Sun: investigating the influence of the solar magnetic field on the cosmic-ray Sun shadow

2020 ◽  
Vol 633 ◽  
pp. A83
Author(s):  
J. Becker Tjus ◽  
P. Desiati ◽  
N. Döpper ◽  
H. Fichtner ◽  
J. Kleimann ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Magnetic Field ◽  
Solar Activity ◽  
Solar Cycle ◽  
Cosmic Rays ◽  
Solar Magnetic Field ◽  
Cosmic Ray ◽  
High Energy ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Theoretical Understanding

The cosmic-ray Sun shadow, which is caused by high-energy charged cosmic rays being blocked and deflected by the Sun and its magnetic field, has been observed by various experiments, such as Argo-YBJ, Tibet, HAWC, and IceCube. Most notably, the shadow’s size and depth was recently shown to correlate with the 11-year solar cycle. The interpretation of such measurements, which help to bridge the gap between solar physics and high-energy particle astrophysics, requires a solid theoretical understanding of cosmic-ray propagation in the coronal magnetic field. It is the aim of this paper to establish theoretical predictions for the cosmic-ray Sun shadow in order to identify observables that can be used to study this link in more detail. To determine the cosmic-ray Sun shadow, we numerically compute trajectories of charged cosmic rays in the energy range of 5−316 TeV for five different mass numbers. We present and analyze the resulting shadow images for protons and iron, as well as for typically measured cosmic-ray compositions. We confirm the observationally established correlation between the magnitude of the shadowing effect and both the mean sunspot number and the polarity of the magnetic field during the solar cycle. We also show that during low solar activity, the Sun’s shadow behaves similarly to that of a dipole, for which we find a non-monotonous dependence on energy. In particular, the shadow can become significantly more pronounced than the geometrical disk expected for a totally unmagnetized Sun. For times of high solar activity, we instead predict the shadow to depend monotonously on energy and to be generally weaker than the geometrical shadow for all tested energies. These effects should become visible in energy-resolved measurements of the Sun shadow, and may in the future become an independent measure for the level of disorder in the solar magnetic field.

scholarly journals The statistical properties of spread F observed at Hainan station during the declining period of the 23rd solar cycle

2010 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 1263-1271 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. J. Wang ◽  
J. K. Shi ◽  
X. Wang ◽  
S. P. Shang ◽  
G. Zherebtsov ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Activity ◽  
Solar Cycle ◽  
Temporal Variations ◽  
High Solar Activity ◽  
Positive Relation ◽  
Low Latitude ◽  
23Rd Solar Cycle ◽  
Reversal Time ◽  
Spread F ◽  
Maximum Occurrence

Abstract. The temporal variations of the low latitude nighttime spread F (SF) observed by DPS-4 digisonde at low latitude Hainan station (geog. 19.5° N, 109.1° E, dip lat. 9.5° N) during the declining solar cycle 23 from March 2002 to February 2008 are studied. The spread F measured by the digisonde were classified into four types, i.e., frequency SF (FSF), range SF (RSF), mixed SF (MSF), and strong range SF (SSF). The statistical results show that MSF and SSF are the outstanding irregularities in Hainan, MSF mainly occurs during summer and low solar activity years, whereas SSF mainly occurs during equinoxes and high solar activity years. The SSF has a diurnal peak before midnight and usually appears during 20:00–02:00 LT, whereas MSF peaks nearly or after midnight and occurs during 22:00–06:00 LT. The time of maximum occurrence of SSF is later in summer than in equinoxes and this time delay can be caused by the later reversal time of the E×B drift in summer. The SunSpot Number (SSN) dependence of each type SF is different during different season. The FSF is independent of SSN during each season; RSF with SSN is positive relation during equinoxes and summer and is no relationship during the winter; MSF is significant dependence on SSN during the summer and winter, and does not relate to SSN during the equinoxes; SSF is clearly increasing with SSN during equinoxes and summer, while it is independent of SSN during the winter. The occurrence numbers of each type SF and total SF have the same trend, i.e., increasing as Kp increases from 0 to 1, and then decreasing as increasing Kp. The correlation with Kp is negative for RSF, MSF, SSF and total SF, but is vague for the FSF.

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