The impact of turbulence on ionospheric plasma density irregularities

Abstract

Our society is becoming increasingly dependent on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), such as the global positioning system (GPS), GLONASS and GALILEO. These systems provide an efficient response to the needs of positioning on our planet and are also used by many infrastructures and applications for timing and synchronization. One of the natural factors that most contribute to the malfunction of these systems, leading to a degradation of their performance, accuracy and reliability, is represented by the ionospheric irregularities, i.e., plasma density variations that may affect the electromagnetic signals propagating through them. By using data recorded onboard the ESA’s Swarm constellation, the possible dependence of the loss of lock of GPS signals on a specific typology of ionospheric irregularities is assessed. It is shown that ionospheric irregularities characterized by a turbulent nature and extremely high-density fluctuations can lead to malfunctions of GNSS, thus paving the way for new prediction approaches of their adverse effects.