Search

Plasma depletions (or bubbles) are strong reductions in the ionospheric F-region plasma density due to the appearance of a Rayleigh–Taylor instability in the post-sunset, producing severe radio signal disruptions when crossing them. Most of the plasma depletions are confined on the Appleton Anomaly region, which also shows the presence of strong scintillations activity. Therefore, stations located in the vicinity of the geomagnetic equator are expected to be frequently affected by the presence of plasma depletions. This paper provides a comparison between the plasma depletion detection results achieved using two algorithms: one developed by the National Institute for Aerospace Technology and the University Complutense of Madrid and one developed by GMV. Six equatorial stations distributed all over the world and different solar activity and seasonal conditions have been selected to analyze the algorithms’ response to different plasma depletions characteristics. A regional behavior analysis of the plasma depletion occurrence and characteristics is also provided.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) observables are affected by the ionosphere. The dispersive nature of this effect and the use of two frequencies in the GPS observations make possible to measure the ionospheric total electron content (TEC) from dual frequency GPS data. In this work we test the concept of permanent monitoring of TEC using a network of GPS receivers at high latitudes. We have used GPS data from five permanent receivers in Scandinavia, from 1-30 January 1994, with geographic latitudes ranging from 57.4°N to 78.9°N. The results show the capability of the method to monitor the evolution of TEC as a function of time and geographical location. We have detected night-time enhancements almost every night for some of the stations, and we have also been able to produce maps of the instantaneous TEC as a function of both latitude and longitude around the GPS network. We also present some of the current limitations in the use of GPS for estimating TEC at high latitudes such as the difficulties in solving for cycle-slips, and the necessity of reliable values for the receiver and satellite differential instrumental biases.

The ionospheric effect is one of the main sources of error in Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) and Global Positioning System (GPS) high precision geodesy. Although the use of two frequencies allows the estimation of this effect, in some cases dual observations are not possible due to the available equipment or the type of observation. This paper presents the ionospheric calibration of single frequency VLBI and GPS observations based on the ionospheric electron content estimated from dual frequency GPS data. The ionospheric delays obtained with this procedure and the VLBI baseline length results have been compared with those obtained with dual frequency data. For the European geodetic VLBI baselines, both solutions agree at the 3–5 parts in 10−9 level. The noise introduced by the GPS-based calibration is in the order of 3 cm for the VLBI observables and of 10 cm for the GPS observables.

SUMMARY Since 1988, the European geodetic Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) community and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, have set up the observation of a series of geodetic VLBI experiments with the purpose of studying possible crustal deformations in Western Europe. In this work we present the results of the analysis of the complete data set with the software package OCCAM 3.0. These results show the detection of significant motions at the centimetre per year level in the southern European stations, close to the boundary between the African and Eurasian plates. Meanwhile, they show no significant motions at that level in central Europe or the Iberian Peninsula. The extraordinary quality of the data and the consistency of the analysis have made it possible to obtain significant geodynamical results in a relatively short time-span.

In the years 1988–1990 Europe has seen a rapid expansion of its geodetic VLBI network with the establishment of several new stations in the Mediterranean area. Now one of the world’s most densely spaced VLBI networks of fixed stations has started a campaign of regular measurements in order to determine regional crustal motions in an area where strong seismicity betrays the ongoing interaction of the African and Eurasian plates.