Study of Ionospheric Bending Angle and Scintillation Profiles Derived by GNSS Radio-Occultation with MetOp-A Satellite

In this work, a dedicated campaign by MetOp-A satellite is conducted to monitor the ionosphere based on radio-occultation (RO) measurements provided by the onboard GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding (GRAS). The main goal is to analyze the capabilities of the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Remote sensing (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2023-03, Vol.15 (6), p.1663
Main Authors: Prol, Fabricio S., Hoque, M. Mainul, Hernández-Pajares, Manuel, Yuan, Liangliang, Olivares-Pulido, Germán, von Engeln, Axel, Marquardt, Christian, Notarpietro, Riccardo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Archives & records
Artificial satellites
Atmosphere
Atmosphere, Upper
Atmospheric sounding
Communications equipment
Datasets
E region
Geometrical optics
Global navigation satellite system
Global positioning systems
GNSS
GPS
Humidity
Ionization
Ionosphere
Meteorological satellites
MetOp
Occultation
Radio
radio-occultation
Receivers & amplifiers
Remote sensing
Scintillation
Signatures
space weather
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In this work, a dedicated campaign by MetOp-A satellite is conducted to monitor the ionosphere based on radio-occultation (RO) measurements provided by the onboard GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) Receiver for Atmospheric Sounding (GRAS). The main goal is to analyze the capabilities of the collected data to represent the bending angle and scintillation profiles of the ionosphere. We compare the MetOp-A products with those generated by other RO missions and explore the spatial/temporal distributions sensed by the MetOp-A campaign. Validation of dual frequency bending angles at the RO tangent points, S4 index, and Rate of the Total electron content Index (ROTI) is performed against independent products from Fengyun-3D and FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 satellites. Our main findings constitute the following: (1) bending angle profiles from MetOp-A agree well with Fengyun-3D measurements; (2) bending angle distributions show a typical S-shape variation along the altitudes; (3) signatures of the sporadic E-layer and equatorial ionization anomaly crests are observed by the bending angles; (4) sharp transitions are observed in the bending angle profiles above ~200 km due to the transition of the daytime/nighttime in addition to the transition of the bottom-side/top-side; and (5) sporadic E-layer signatures are observed in the S4 index distributions by MetOp-A and FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2, with expected differences in magnitudes between the GPS (Global Positioning System) L1 and L2 frequencies.
ISSN:2072-4292
2072-4292
DOI:10.3390/rs15061663