Installation and configuration of an ionospheric scintillation monitoring station based on GNSS receivers in Antarctica

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs), such as the US Global Positioning System (GPS), The
Russian GLONASS or the European Galileo, are space-based navigation systems. GNSSs enable a generic
user located anywhere on the Earth to determine in real time his Position, Velocity and Time (PVT), by
means of a Radio Frequency (RF) electro-magnetic signal, the Signal-In-Space (SIS), transmitted by a
constellation of satellites orbiting around Earth.
Uninterrupted Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) solution is determined by GNSS receivers,
which continuously process the SIS from the satellites in view. GNSS receivers are part of the GNSSs
ground segment. They are a suboptimal implementation of a maximum likelihood estimator of the SIS
propagation time. The PNT solution is indeed based on the computation of the SIS Time Of Arrival (TOA),
according to the satellite and receiver local clocks. This is achieved thanks to the presence of a different
Pseudo Random Noise (PRN) spreading code in the modulated SIS broadcast by each satellite. In the GNSS
receiver, the incoming signal is correlated with a local replica of signal code, obtaining the time difference
information. The time difference is then transformed into a range information by multiplying it by the speed
of light in the vacuum. However, since the receiver clock is not synchronized with the transmitters clock, this
measure suffers of time bias, which is considered as an additional unknown in the navigation solution.
Finally, the user position is determined on an Earth centred reference system with a process denoted
trilateration, by exploiting the range information computed by the receiver and the information contained in
the SIS navigation message, such as satellite ephemeris [Kaplan et al., 2005].

Kaplan E. and Hegarty C., (2005). Understanding GPS: principles and applications. Artech house.
Shanmugam S., Jones J., MacAulay A. and Van Dierendonck A.J., (2012). Evolution to modernized GNSS
ionoshperic scintillation and TEC monitoring. In: Proc. Position Location and Navigation Symposium
(IEEE/ION PLANS), 23-26 April 2012, Myrtle Beach, SC, pp. 265-273.
Van Dierendonck A.J. and Quyen H., (2001). Measuring Ionospheric Scintillation Effects from GPS Signals.
In: Proc. of the 57th Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, 11-13 June 2001, Albuquerque,
NM, pp. 391-396. Romano V., Macelloni G., Spogli L., Brogioni M., Marinaro G. and Mitchell, C.N., (2013). Measuring
GNSS ionospheric total electron content at Concordia, and application to L-band radiometers. In:
Annals of Geophysics, 2013.
Lo Presti L., Falletti E., Nicola M. and Troglia Gamba M., (2014). Software defined radio technology for
GNSS receivers. In: Metrology for Aerospace (MetroAeroSpace), May 2014, pp. 314-319.
Peng S. and Morton Y., (2013). A USRP2-based reconfigurable multi-constellation multi-frequency GNSS
software receiver front end. In: GPS Solutions, 17(1), pp. 89-102.
Curran J.T., Bavaro M., and Fortuny J., (2014). An Open-Loop Vector Receiver Architecture for GNSSBased
Scintillation Monitoring. In: Proc. European Navigation Conference (ENC-GNSS), 15-17 April
2014 Rotterdam.
Linty N., Romero R., Dovis F. and Alfonsi L., (2015). Benefits of GNSS software receivers for ionospheric
monitoring at high latitudes. In: Proc. Radio Science Conference (URSI AT-RASC), 18-22 May 2015,
Canary Islands, pp. 1-6.
Septentrio, (2015). RxTools for RxTools v1.10.5 user manual. Septentrio nv/sa, April 29, 2015.
Linty N., Dovis F., Romero R., Cristodaro C., Alfonsi L. and Correia E., (2016). Monitoring ionosphere over
Antarctica by means of a GNSS signal acquisition system and a software radio receiver. In: Proc. of
the 2016 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, Monterey, California,
January 2016, pp. 549-555.
Linty N., Romero R., Cristodaro C., Dovis F., Bavaro M., Curran J.T., Fortuny-Guasch J., Ward J.,
Lamprecht G., Riley P., Cillers P., Correia E. and Alfonsi L., (2016). Ionospheric scintillation threats
to GNSS in polar regions: the DemoGRAPE case study in Antarctica. In: Proc. of the European
Navigation Conference (IEEE ENC 2016), Helsinki (Finland), June 2016, pp. 1-7.