A study on the relationship between ionospheric correction and data control for GPS radio occultation in Australia

GPS radio occultation, (RO) is an emerging and robust space-based earth observation system, with the potential for atmospheric profiling and meteorological applications. GPS RO requires GPS receivers onboard Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites to measure the radio signals from GPS satellites so that the atmospheric profiles of parameters such as temperature, pressure and water vapour can be obtained via a complicated atmospheric retrieval process. This research focuses on the ionospheric correction using the Radio Occultation Processing Package (ROPP) to investigate the effect from ionosphere for GPS radio occultation in the Australia region. The MSISE-90 model with the statistical optimization method produced the best results for altitudes greater than 40 km. The influence from the ionosphere can be removed using the generic Lc method which produced the best results for altitudes less than 40 km.