The comparison of ionospheric trough signatures derived from GNSS data – a geomagnetic storm case study.

Rafal Sieradzki

doi:10.31648/ts.12092

The comparison of ionospheric trough signatures derived from GNSS data – a geomagnetic storm case study.

Rafal Sieradzki

a:1:{s:5:"en_US";s:42:"University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn";}

DOI: https://doi.org/10.31648/ts.12092

Abstrakt

Nowadays, observations from the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) are one of the most valuable datasets used for ionosphere remote sensing. One of the fields of such studies is to detect and describe the different-scale ionospheric effects, including the main ionospheric trough. This phenomenon is recognised as a large-scale depletion in plasma density with sharp gradients at the edges, observed at the boundary between the high- and middle-latitude ionosphere. Due to the connection between the trough and auroral oval, it exhibits a high dependence on the geomagnetic activity. This work presents a cross-evaluation of ionospheric trough detection using various GNSS-based methods. The assessment utilises multi-station geometry-free (GF) linear combination (LC) GNSS data, converted to vertical directions, and global ionospheric maps. In the former case, data from several dozen stations located in the Northern Hemisphere are used to provide a spatial view of the analysed ionospheric phenomenon. The study focuses on the patterns of trough during high geomagnetic activity that occurred in March 2012. The results confirm that the network-derived GF LC GNSS time series, scaled to a vertical ionospheric path, can be successfully used for ionospheric trough monitoring. Such datasets provide complex signatures of trough during two selected cases corresponding to different phases of the storm. In contrast, the results derived from the global ionospheric maps suffer from generalisation, the level of which depends on the generating algorithm. The comparison of such products provided by UPC and ESA reveals the outperformance of the former, characterised by RMS values at the level 1.7-1.8 TECu. In contrast, the patterns of ionospheric trough in the ESA product are significantly deteriorated, even to 4.4 TECu RMS.

Słowa kluczowe:

GNSS, ionospheric trough, global ionospheric maps, geomagnetic storm

Instytucje finansujące

This research was funded by the National Science Centre, Poland, Project No. 2023/48/Q/ST10/00059

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29-12-2025

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Sieradzki, R. (2025). The comparison of ionospheric trough signatures derived from GNSS data – a geomagnetic storm case study. Technical Sciences, 28(28), 291–290. https://doi.org/10.31648/ts.12092