Abstract
Electromagnetic waves propagating through the Earth’s ionosphere are
subjected to changes in group and phase velocities, refraction,
dispersion, and diffraction. For systems like GPS, which relies on the
usage of L-band signals, rapid and random fluctuations in the phase and
amplitude (known as scintillation) of the signals passing through the
ionosphere play a major role, as they may cause losses of lock and
result in degrading the accuracy and reliability of such systems.
Therefore, understanding the physical nature and ability to predict the
scintillation has been a challenge since a long time for engineers and
scientists. In this work, a climatological model of rapid random
fluctuations in phase and amplitude of GPS signals has been presented
for high latitudes of the northern hemisphere. The 50Hz GPS raw data
from Canadian High Arctic Ionospheric Network (CHAIN) for the 24th solar
cycle (2008-2019) have been used to study the climatology of the rapid
fluctuations in phase and amplitude of the GPS signals. The statistical
analysis has been performed in terms of phase and amplitude
scintillation indices (𝜎𝜑 and 𝑆4). The results are presented for
different geo- and helio-physical conditions, including solar and
geomagnetic activity, season, local time and geographical/geomagnetic
location of ionospheric pierce points. For the first time, the
distribution of the signal phase and amplitude fluctuations are
presented for the whole period of the 24th solar cycle. An important
quantitative statistical relation of the phase and amplitude
fluctuations in GPS signals have been established for the high latitude
region. A theoretical explanation is suggested for the observed
differences in phase and amplitude fluctuations.