ROB-IONO Near-Real Time European Ionospheric Maps

Description

Vertical Total Electron Content maps based on multi-GNSS observations (GPS+Galileo+GLONASS) of the EUREF Permanent Network. The VTEC maps allow GNSS users to have an estimation of the ionospheric delay induced along the signal of the observed satellite. TEC data publicly available in IONEX files at https://gnss.be/SpaceWeather/Products/IONEX/. Using ROB-IONO software, 5-minutes ionospheric VTEC maps are produced in near real time above Europe from the GNSS stations of the EUREF Permanent Network (EPN). To do so, the Slant Total Electron Content (STEC) of GNSS satellite-receiver pairs are estimated and projected in VTEC at the Ionospheric Piercing Points (IPP) using an ionospheric single thin layer shell approximation located at 450 km. The VTECs at the IPPs are then interpolated in a grid of 0.5°x05° using spline interpolation. Products such as orbits and satellite Differential Code Biases (DCB) are taken from the International GNSS Service (IGS) and from the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE). The receiver DCBs are estimated at ROB using Rapid Ionex of the IGS as a priori information.

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