The GPS performance is impaired in conditions of geomagnetic distrubances. The rms error of positioning accuracy increases in the case where two-frequency GPS receivers of three main types (ASHTECH, TRIMBLE, and AOA) are in operation. For ASHTECH receivers (unlike AOA and TRIMBLE) there is also a clear correlation between the slip density of the one- and two-frequency modes of positioning and the level of geomagnetic disturbance.
Using the geomagnetic storm of July 15, 2000 as an example, we investigated the dependence of GPS navigation system performance on the nightside at mid-latitudes on the level of geomagnetic disturbance. The investigation was based on the data from the global GPS system available through the Internet. It was shown that the number of GPS phase slips increases with the increasing level of disturbance and that there is a good correlation between the rate of Dst-variation and the frequency of slips. It was further shown that the relative frequency of slips has also a clearly pronounced aspect dependence. Phase slips of the GPS signal can be caused by the scattering from small-scale irregularities of the ionospheric E-layer. Phase slip characteristics are indicative of Farley-Buneman instabilities as a plausible physical mechanism that is responsible for the formation of geomagnetic field-aligned irregularities. Using simultaneous measurements of backscatter signal characteristics from the Irkutsk incoherent scatter radar and existing models for such irregularities, we estimated the order of magnitude of the expected phase fluctuations of the GPS signal at a few degrees.
We analyze data from four GPS campaigns carried out between 1997 and 2002 on a network of 11 sites in the Suez-Sinai, the area of collision between the African and the Arabian plates. This is the key area to understand how and in which way Sinai behaves like a sub-plate of the African plate and the role played between seismic and geodetic (long term) deformation release. Our analysis shows that, on average, the Suez-Sinai area motion (in terms of ITRF00 velocities) matches African plate motion (NNR-NUVEL-1A model). However, the baseline length variations show transient deformations in Sinai and across the Gulf of Suez, reaching up a maximum value of about 1.5 cm in five years. Since current geodynamical models do not predict significant tectonic deformation in this area, we worked under the hypothesis that a contribute may be due to post-seismic relaxation. Under this hypothesis, we compared the baselines length variations with the post-seismic relaxation field associated with five major local earthquakes occurred in the area, testing two different viscoelastic models. Our results show that the transient deformations are better modelled for viscosity values of 1018 Pa s in the lower crust and 1020 Pa s in the asthenosphere. However, since the modelled post-seismic effect results modest and a certain amount of the detected deformation is not accounted for, we think that an improved modelling should take into account the lateral heterogeneities of crust and upper mantle structures.
We investigate an unusual class of medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances (MS TIDs) of the nonwave type, isolated ionospheric disturbances (IIDs) that manifest themselves in total electron content (TEC) variations in the form of single aperiodic negative TEC disturbances of a duration of about 10 min (the total electron content spikes, TECS). It was found that TECS are observed in no more than 1-2 % of the total number of radio paths. We present the results derived from analyzing the dependence of TECS parameters on local time, and on the level of geomagnetic activity. The TECS amplitude exceeds at least one order of magnitude the TEC fluctuation intensity under background conditions. To analyze TECS dynamic characteristics the event of 5 October, 2001 was used.
Using the international ground-based network of two-frequency receivers of the GPS navigation system provides a means of carrying out a global, continuous and fully-computerized monitoring of phase fluctuations of signals from satellite-borne radio engineering systems caused by the Earths inhomogeneous and nonstationary ionosphere. We found that during major geomagnetic storms, the errors of determination of the range, frequency Doppler shift and angles of arrival of transionospheric radio signals exceeds the one for magnetically quiet days by one order of magnitude as a minimum. This can be the cause of performance degradation of current satellite radio engineering navigation, communication and radar systems as well as of superlong-baseline radio interferometry systems.
Results derived from analysing the ionosphere response to faint and bright solar flares are presented. The analysis used technology of a global detection of ionospheric effects from solar flares as developed by the authors, on the basis of phase measurements of the total electron content (TEC) in the ionosphere using an international GPS network. The essence of the method is that use is made of appropriate filtering and a coherent processing of variations in the TEC which is determined from GPS data, simultaneously for the entire set of visible GPS satellites at all stations used in the analysis. This technique is useful for identifying the ionospheric response to faint solar flares (of X-ray class C) when the variation amplitude of the TEC response to separate line-on-sight to GPS satellite is comparable to the level of background fluctuations. The dependence of the TEC variation response amplitude on the flares location on the Sun is investigated.