volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

An analytical model for the description of the electromagnetic waves propagation in a layered medium consisting of sectors having the locally spherical symmetric distributions of refractivity is introduced. Model presents analytical expressions for the phase path and refractive attenuation of electromagnetic waves. Influence of the inclined ionospheric layers is a cause of the ionospheric interference in the trans-ionospheric communication satellite-to-satellite or satellite-to-Earth links. It follows from the analytical model that the identification of the inclined ionospheric layers contributions and measurements of their location and parameters may be fulfilled by use of comparative analysis of the amplitude variations and the eikonal acceleration of the RO signals. Model is applied to analysis of the radio occultation (RO) signals propagating through the ionosphere and atmosphere. Model explains existence of the ionospheric contributions in the RO signals at the altitudes 30-90 km of the RO ray perigee as connected with influence of a tangent point in the ionosphere where the electron density gradient is perpendicular to the RO ray trajectory. By use of the CHAMP RO amplitude data a description of different types of the ionospheric contributions to the RO signals is introduced and compared with results of measurements obtained earlier in the communication link satellite-to-Earth at frequency 1.5415 GHz of MARSAT satellite.

1. Melbourne, W. G., E. S. Davis, C. B. Duncan, G. A. Hajj, K. R. Hardy, E. R. Kursinski, T. K. Meehan, L. E. Young, and T. P. Yunck, "The application of spaceborne GPS to atmospheric limb sounding and global change monitoring," JPL Publication 94-18, 147, 1994. Google Scholar

2. Ware, R., M. Exner, D. Feng, M. Gorbunov, K. Hardy, B. Herman, Y.-H. Kuo, T. Meehan, W. Melbourn, C. Rocken, W. Schreiner, S. Sokolovskiy, F. Solheim, X. Zou, R. Anthes, S. Businger, and K. Trenberth, "GPS soundings of the atmosphere from low earth orbit: Preliminary results," Bull. Am. Meteor. Soc., Vol. 77, 19-40, 1996.
doi:10.1175/1520-0477(1996)077<0019:GSOTAF>2.0.CO;2 Google Scholar

3. Kursinski, E. R., Hajj, G. A., Schofield, J. T., et al. "Observing Earth's atmosphere with radio occultation measurements using the global positioning system," J. Geophys. Res., Vol. 102, 23429-23465, 1997.
doi:10.1029/97JD01569 Google Scholar

4. Hajj, G. A. and L. J. Romans, "Ionospheric electron density profiles obtained with the global positioning system: Results from GPS/MET experiment," Radio Sci., Vol. 33, No. 1, 175-190, 1998.
doi:10.1029/97RS03183 Google Scholar

5. Steiner, A. K., G. Kirchengast, and H. P. Landreiter, "Inversion, error analysis, and validation of GPS/MET occultation data," Ann. Geophys., Vol. 17, 122-138, 1999. Google Scholar

6. Wickert, J., C. Reigber, G. Beyerle, R. Konig, C. Marquardt, T. Schmidt, L. Grunwaldt, R. Galas, T. K. Meehan, W. G. Melbourne, and K. Hocke, "Atmosphere sounding by GPS radio occultation: First results from CHAMP," Geophys. Res. Lett., Vol. 28, No. 19, 3263-3266, 2001.
doi:10.1029/2001GL013117 Google Scholar

7. Yakovlev, O. I., Space Radio Science, 306, Taylor and Francis, 2003.

8. Melbourne, W. G., Radio Occultations Using Earth Satellites: A Wave Theory Treatment, 610, Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology, Monograph 6, Deep space communications and navigation series, Issued by the Deep Space Communications and Navigation Systems Center of Excellence Jet Propulsion Laboratory California Institute of Technology, J. H. Yuen, Editor-in-Chief, 2004.

9. Jakowski, N., R. Leitinger, and M. Angling, "Radio occultation techniques for probing the ionosphere," Annals of Geophysics, Supplement to V, Vol. 47, No. 2-3, 1049-1066, 2004. Google Scholar

10. Kunitsyn, V. E. and E. D. Tereshchenko, Ionospheric Tomography, Springer-Verlag, 2003.

11. Liou, Y.-A., A. G. Pavelyev, C.-Y. Huang, K. Igarashi, K. Hocke, and S. K. Yan, "Analytic method for observation of the GW using RO data," Geophys. Res. Lett., Vol. 30, No. 23, ASC 1-1-1-5, 2003. Google Scholar

12. Igarashi, K., A. Pavelyev, K. Hocke, D. Pavelyev, and J. Wickert, "Observation of wave structures in the upper atmosphere by means of radio holographic analysis of the RO data," Advances in Space Research, Vol. 27, No. 6-7, 1321-1327, 2001.
doi:10.1016/S0273-1177(01)00144-2 Google Scholar

13. Hocke, K., A. Pavelyev, O. Yakovlev, L. Barthes, and N. Jakowski, "RO data analysis by radio holographic method," JASTP, Vol. 61, 1169-1177, 1999. Google Scholar

14. Vorob'ev, V. V., A. S. Gurvich, V. Kan, S. V. Sokolovskiy, O. V. Fedorova, and A. V. Shmakov, "Structure of the ionosphere from the radio-occultation GPS-"Microlab-1" satellite data: Preliminary results," Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, Vol. 15, 609-622, 1999. Google Scholar

15. Steiner, A. K. and G. Kirchengast, "GW spectra from GPS/MET occultation observations," J. Atmos. Ocean. Tech., Vol. 17, 495-503, 2000.
doi:10.1175/1520-0426(2000)017<0495:GWSFGM>2.0.CO;2 Google Scholar

16. Igarashi, K., A. Pavelyev, K. Hocke, D. Pavelyev, I. A. Kucherjavenkov, S. Matugov, A. Zakharov, and O. Yakovlev, "Radio holographic principle for observing natural processes in the atmosphere and retrieving meteorological parameters from RO data," Earth Planets Space, Vol. 52, No. 14, 868-875, 2000. Google Scholar

17. Gorbunov, M. E., "Ionospheric correction and statistical optimization of radio occultation data," Radio Science, Vol. 37, No. 8, 17-1-17-9, 2002. Google Scholar

18. Pavelyev, A. G., Y. A. Liou, C. Y. Huang, C. Reigber, J. Wickert, K. Igarashi, and K. Hocke, "Radio holographic method for the study of the ionosphere, atmosphere and terrestrial surface using GPS occultation signals," GPS Solutions, Vol. 6, 101-108, 2002. Google Scholar

19. Liou, Y.-A., A. G. Pavelyev, C.-Y. Huang, K. Igarashi, and K. Hocke, "Simultaneous observation of the vertical gradients of refractivity in the atmosphere and electron density in the lower ionosphere by radio occultation amplitude method," Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 29, No. 21, 43-1-43-4, 2002. Google Scholar

20. Vorob'ev, V. V. and T. G. Krasilnikova, "Estimation of accuracy of the atmosphere refractive index recovery from Doppler shift measurements at frequencies used in the NAVSTAR system," Izv. Russ. Acad. Sci., Physics of the Atmosphere and Ocean, Engl. Transl., Vol. 29, No. 10, 602-609, 1994. Google Scholar

21. Sokolovskiy, S. V., "Inversion of RO amplitude data," Radio Sci., Vol. 35, No. 1, 97-105, 2000.
doi:10.1029/1999RS002203 Google Scholar

22. Sokolovskiy, S. V., W. Schreiner, C. Rocken, and D. Hunt, "Detection of high-altitude ionospheric irregularities with GPS/MET," Geophys. Res. Lett., Vol. 29, No. 3, 621-625, 2002.
doi:10.1029/2001GL013398 Google Scholar

23. Wickert, J., A. G. Pavelyev, Y. A. Liou, et al. "Amplitude variations in GPS signals as a possible indicator of ionospheric structures," Geophys. Res. Lett., Vol. 31, No. 24, ASC 1-1-1-5, 2004.
doi:10.1029/2004GL020607 Google Scholar

24. Liou, Y.-A., A. G. Pavelyev, C.-Y. Huang, K. Igarashi, K. Hocke, and S. K. Yan, "Analytic method for observation of the GW using RO data," Geophys. Res. Lett., Vol. 30, No. 23, ASC 1-1-1-5, 2003. Google Scholar

25. Liou, Y. A., A. G. Pavelyev, and J. Wickert, "Observation of gravity waves from GPS/MET radio occultation data," J. Atmos. Solar-terr. Phys., Vol. 67, 219-228, 2005.
doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2004.08.001 Google Scholar

26. Karasawa, Y., K. Yasukawa, and M. Yamada, "Ionospheric scintillation measurement at 1.5 GHz in mid-latitude region," Radio Science, Vol. 20, No. 3, 643-651, 1985.
doi:10.1029/RS020i003p00643 Google Scholar

27. Yeh, K. C. and C. H. Liu, "Radio wave scintillations in the ionosphere," Proc. IEEE, Vol. 70, No. 7, 324-360, 1982. Google Scholar

28. Liou, Y. A. and A. G. Pavelyev, "Simultaneous observations of radio wave phase and intensity variations for locating the plasma layers in the ionosphere," Geophys Res Lett, Vol. 33, No. 26, L23102 1-5, 2006. Google Scholar

29. Pavelyev, A. G., Y. A. Liou, J. Wickert, A. L. Gavrik, and C. C. Lee, "Eikonal acceleration technique for studying of the Earth and planetary atmospheres by radio occultation method," Geophys. Res. Lett., Vol. 36, L21807 1-5, 2009. Google Scholar

30. Ahmad, B. and G. Leonard Tyler, "Systematic errors in atmospheric profiles obtained from Abelian inversion of radio occultation data: Effects of large-scale horizontal gradients," J. Geoph. Res., Vol. 104, No. D4, 3971-3992, 1999.
doi:10.1029/1998JD200102 Google Scholar

31. Pavelyev, A. G. and A. I. Kucherjavenkov, "Refractive attenuation in the planetary atmospheres," Radio Eng. and Electron. Phys., Vol. 23, No. 10, 13-19, 1978. Google Scholar

32. Pavelyev, A. G., Y. A. Liou, J. Wickert, T. Schmidt, A. A. Pavelyev, and S. F. Liu, "Effects of the ionosphere and solar activity on radio occultation signals: Application to challenging minisatellite payload satellite observations," J. Geophys. Res., Vol. 112, No. A06326, 1-14, 2007. Google Scholar

33. Liou, Y. A., A. G. Pavelyev, S.-F. Liu, A. A. Pavelyev, N. Yen, C. Y. Huang, and C.-J. Fong, "FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC GPS radio occultation mission: Preliminary results," IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Vol. 45, No. 14, 3813-3826, 2007.
doi:10.1109/TGRS.2007.903365 Google Scholar

34. Pavelyev, A. G., J. Wickert, and Y. A. Liou, "Localization of plasma layers in the ionosphere based on observing variations in the amplitude and phase of radiowaves along the satellite-to-satellite path," Radiophysics and Quantum Electronics, Vol. 51, No. 1, 1-8, 2008.
doi:10.1007/s11141-008-9002-1 Google Scholar

35. Pavelyev, A. G., Y. A. Liou, J. Wickert, A. A. Pavelyev, T. Schmidt, K. Igarashi, and S. S. Matyugov, "Location of layered structures in the ionosphere and atmosphere by use of GPS occultation data," Advances in Space Research, Vol. 42, 224-228, 2008.
doi:10.1016/j.asr.2008.02.006 Google Scholar

36. Pavelyev, A. G., Y.-A. Liou, J. Wickert, T. Schmidt, A. A. Pavelyev, and S. S. Matyugov, "Phase acceleration: A new important parameter in GPS occultation technology," GPS Solutions, Vol. 14, No. 1, 3-14, 2010.
doi:10.1007/s10291-009-0128-1 Google Scholar

Dr. A. G. Pavelyev

Prof. Yuei-An Liou

Dr. J. Wickert

Dr. Keifei Zhang

Dr. Chuan-Sheng Wang

Prof. Yuriy Kuleshov