MITIGATOR: GNSS-Based System for Remote Sensing of Ionospheric Absolute Total Electron Content

Abstract

Monitoring the Earth’s ionosphere is an important, fundamental and applied problem. Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) provide a way of measuring the ionospheric total electron content (TEC), but real-time single-station absolute TEC measurements are still a problem. This study describes a single-station system to measure the absolute TEC, based on the GNSS–MITIGATOR (MonITorInG the Absolute TOtal electRon content) system. The latter enables real-time measurements for the absolute TEC and its derivatives in time and in space to be obtained. The system is implemented by using JAVAD receivers. The convergence time and the run-mode retention time is ~8 h. We provide potential methods for using the system to estimate the critical frequency of the ionosphere, foF2, at oblique paths in the Siberian region. The developed tool could be useful for supporting real-time multi-instrumental ionosphere monitoring or for compensating for the ionospheric errors of radio equipment.