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Performance evaluation of real-time global ionospheric maps provided by different IGS analysis centers

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Abstract

With the development of real-time precise clock and orbit products, high-precision real-time ionospheric products have become one of the most critical resources for real-time single-frequency precise point positioning. Fortunately, there are several international GNSS service (IGS) analysis centers, e.g., UPC, WHU, and CAS, that are providing real-time global ionospheric maps (RT-GIMs). We evaluate these maps in detail over 2 years for different aspects. First, the RT-GIMs and 1-day predicted ionospheric products (C1PG GIM) differenced with the IGS final GIMs (IGSG GIM) are performed. Second, ionospheric vertical total electron content from Jason-2/3 data is set as a reference to evaluate the quality of RT-GIMs over oceanic regions. Third, 22 stations, which are not used in the generation of RT-GIMs, C1PG GIM, and IGSG GIM, are selected and the difference of slant total electron content (dSTEC) method is used to assess the accuracy and consistency of RT-GIMs over continental regions. Finally, the performance of RT-GIMs in the position domain is demonstrated based on SF-PPP solutions. The results show that the accuracy of the RT-GIMs is slightly worse than that of C1PG GIM and IGSG GIM. All RT-GIMs and the C1PG GIM have a smaller mean difference compared to the IGSG GIM by (−0.97, − 0.90, − 0.77, − 0.80) TECU for (UPC RT-GIM, CAS RT-GIM, WHU RT-GIM, C1PG GIM). Over oceanic regions, the RT-GIMs perform nearly the same as the C1PG GIM, but a slightly worse than IGSG GIM. The STDs are (3.96, 3.05, 3.25, 3.12, 2.54) TECU relative to Jason-2 and (4.94, 3.24, 3.38, 3.24, 2.65) TECU relative to Jason-3 for (UPC RT-GIM, CAS RT-GIM, WHU RT-GIM, C1PG GIM, IGSG GIM), respectively. Comparing with dSTEC values observed from the selected ground stations over continental regions, the RMS is (4.02, 2.16, 2.29, 1.86, 1.49) TECU for (UPC RT-GIM, CAS RT-GIM, WHU RT-GIM, C1PG GIM, IGSG GIM). In the position domain, the positioning accuracy of SF-PPP solution corrected by the RT-GIMs and C1PG GIM can reach decimeter level in the horizontal direction and meter level in the vertical direction, which is worse than obtained by IGSG GIM. Meanwhile, the positioning accuracy of SF-PPP corrected by RT-GIMs is almost the same as that obtained using C1PG GIM. For RT-GIMs, the accuracy of the CAS RT-GIM is slightly better than that of the other two RT-GIMs.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars (Grant no. 41825009), the Hubei Province Natural Science Foundation of China (no. 2018CFA081), the National Youth Thousand Talents Program, the Funds for Creative Research Groups of China (Grant No. 41721003), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (nos. 2016YFB0501803, 2017YFB0503402), National Natural Science Foundation of China (nos. 41774034, 41774030), the project of Wuhan Science and Technology Bureau (No. 2018010401011270), China Scholarship Council (CSC, file 201806275029), Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment and Geodesy, Ministry of Education, Wuhan University (no. 18-02-02), and Guangxi Key Laboratory of Spatial Information and Geomatics (no. 17-259-16-05). The numerical calculations were done on the supercomputing system in the Supercomputing Center of Wuhan University. We are very grateful to the Crustal Dynamics Data Information System (CDDIS) data center for providing 1-day predicted GIMs, final GIMs, observation data, and navigation file by the following FTP server: ftp://cddis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gnss/pro-ducts/ionex/and ftp://cddis.gsfc.nasa.gov/pub/gps/data/daily/. The data of the Jason-2/3 altimetry are available via the FTP server: ftp://data.nodc.noaa.gov/pub/data.nodc/. The data of the RT-GIMs products of different IAACs are collected by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and can available via the FTP server: ftp://gipp.org.cn/product/ionex. In addition, we also gratefully acknowledge the use of Generic Mapping Tool (GMT) software.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geodesy and Geomatics, Wuhan University, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Xiaodong Ren, Jun Chen, Xingxing Li & Xiaohong Zhang

  2. Deutsches Geodätisches Forschungsinstitut der Technischen Universität München (DGFI-TUM), Arcisstraße 21, 80333, Munich, Germany

    Xiaodong Ren

  3. Key Laboratory of Geospace Environment and Geodesy, Ministry of Education, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Jun Chen & Xiaohong Zhang

  4. Collaborative Innovation Center for Geospatial Technology, 129 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Xiaohong Zhang & Mohamed Freeshah

  5. State Key Laboratory of Information Engineering in Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430079, China

    Mohamed Freeshah

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Ren, X., Chen, J., Li, X. et al. Performance evaluation of real-time global ionospheric maps provided by different IGS analysis centers. GPS Solut 23, 113 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10291-019-0904-5

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