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Ionospheric corrections for single-frequency tracking of GNSS satellites by VLBI based on co-located GNSS

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Abstract

Tracking L-band signals of GNSS satellites by radio telescopes became a new observation type in recent years and will be used to improve reference system realizations and links between Earth- and space-fixed frames. First successful test observations were done, with the drawback of being single-frequency only. In order to correct the ionospheric delay by using GNSS phase observations from co-located receivers, the L4R approach was developed. Based on residuals derived by a least-squares processing of the GNSS geometry-free linear combination corresponding corrections could be derived. As a first validation step L4R corrections were applied to GNSS \(L_1\) data analysis. Station coordinate repeatibilities at the 1-cm level were obtained for baselines of a few thousand kilometers. Comparing the derived delay corrections to VLBI ionospheric delays for quasars located in same directions, differences with a standard deviation of 2.2 TECU could be achieved.

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Notes

  1. http://umbra.nascom.nasa.gov/sdb/yohkoh/ys_dbase/indices_raw/2013, Oct 2014.

  2. http://www.wdcb.ru/stp/data/geomagni.ind/dst/dst2013.txt, Oct 2014.

  3. With respect to a magnetic reference frame (latitude of the geomagnetic north pole is 87.2\(^\circ \) N).

  4. http://lacerta.gsfc.nasa.gov/mk5/help/dbngs_format.txt, Oct 2014.

  5. ftp://ivscc.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/control/master-format.txt, Oct 2014.

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Acknowledgments

The authors want to thank IVS and IGS for providing the necessary observations and CODE and TU Vienna for providing GNSS and atmospheric products allowing a suitable processing. They would also like to thank three anonymous reviewers for their assistance in evaluating this paper and their helpful recommendations. This work was done within the project “Co-location of Space Geodetic Techniques on Ground and in Space” which is part of the DFG funded Research Unit “Space-Time Reference Systems for Monitoring Global Change and for Precise Navigation in Space” (FOR 1503).

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  1. ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Benjamin Männel & Markus Rothacher

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  1. Benjamin Männel
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Correspondence to Benjamin Männel.

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Männel, B., Rothacher, M. Ionospheric corrections for single-frequency tracking of GNSS satellites by VLBI based on co-located GNSS. J Geod 90, 189–203 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-015-0865-6

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