Monitoring, Modelling and Prediction of small-scale ionospheric irregularities

Abstract

Transionospheric radio signals used in global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) can be severely affected by small irregularities in the ionospheric plasma. The reception of these signals at the receiver level may suffers from rapid and intense amplitude and phase fluctuations, called scintillations, which can cause fading of the signal or even loss of the signal link. Such disturbances occur frequently in the equatorial region during the post-sunset hours due to plasma flow inversion or during geomagnetic storms in the polar region. We will present an overview of our ionosphere monitoring network as well as past and recent scintillation analyses results. Furthermore, we demonstrate the recent status of the Global Ionospheric Scintillation Model (GISM), which is recently implemented as test version within the Ionosphere Monitoring and Prediction Service (IMPC) of DLR. We will discuss the potential of GISM forecasts to mitigate scintillation effects on satellite-based navigation, communication and remote sensing.