Validation and application of optimal ionospheric shell height model for single-site estimation of total electron content.

We recently proposed a method to establish an optimal ionospheric shell height model based on the international GNSS service (IGS) station data and the differential code bias (DCB) provided by the Center for Orbit Determination in Europe (CODE) during the time from 2003 to 2013. This method is very promising for DCB and accurate total electron content (TEC) estimation by comparing to the traditional fixed shell height method. However, this method is basically feasible only for IGS stations. In this study, we investigate how to apply the optimal ionospheric shell height derived from IGS station to non-IGS stations or isolated GNSS receivers. The intuitive and practical method to estimate TEC of non-IGS stations is based on optimal ionospheric shell height derived from nearby IGS stations. To validate this method, we selected two dense networks of IGS stations located in regions in the US and Europe. Two optimal ionospheric shell height models are established by two reference stations, namely GOLD and PTBB, which are located at the approximate center of two selected regions. The predicted daily optimal ionospheric shell heights by the two models are applied to other IGS stations around these two reference stations. Daily DCBs are calculated according to these two optimal shell heights and compared to respective DCBs released by CODE. The validation results of this method are as follows. (1) Optimal ionospheric shell height calculated by IGS stations can be applied to its nearby non-IGS stations or isolated GNSS receivers for accurate TEC estimation. (2) As the distance away from the reference IGS station becomes larger, the DCB estimation error becomes larger. The relation between the DCB estimation error and the distance is generally linear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]