Ionospheric Electron Concentration Imaging Using Combination of LEO Satellite Data With Ground-Based GPS Observations Over China

Space-based global positioning system (GPS) data onboard low Earth orbit satellites are used together with ground-based GPS observations to simultaneously image ionospheric electron density (IED), and it aims to improve the spatial resolution of ionospheric tomography. High-precision dual-frequency GPS data from the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China and several International GPS Service stations and the Constellation Observation System for Meteorology Ionosphere and Climate (COSMIC) are used to invert a time series of the IED profiles over China and surroundings. Some retrieved electron density profiles are compared with the results from COSMIC occultation data processed by COSMIC Data Analysis and Archival Center, and the peak density in F2 (NmF2) is verified by ionosonde data. Experimental results demonstrate the imaging effectiveness due to COSMIC data used in the inversion, and the potential benefits using COSMIC data in such system are also discussed.