Tiwari etal./Journal of Engineering, Science and Management Education/Vol.

2, 2010/49-56

IONOSPHERIC EFFECT ON GPS-BASED MARINE NAVIGATION

Rajesh Tiwari*, Smita Tiwari*, Soumi Bhattacharya**, P. K. Purohit*** and A. K. Gwal**
Recieved Aug. 14, 2010, Revised Aug. 26, 2010 ; Accepted Sep. 30, 2010

Abstract The marine navigation is one of the major applications of GPS-based navigation, and it require high level of precision, availability and reliability. However, the precision does depend on ionospheric conditions. The performance of GPS is not so effective in low and high latitude region. The ionosphere is composed of non-uniform charged particles, so it has different properties depending on geomagnetic latitude, season, and local time. GPS signal slows down in the ionospheric region with the actual velocity of light. A delay of about 5 l00 ns in the zenith direction may be observed. The extra ionospheric delay produces a range error, which ultimately affect position accuracy. In this research paper, influence of the ionosphere on GPS accuracy over geomagnetic latitude (high, mid, and low latitude) has been investigated in dynamic mode for marine navigation in M.V. Emerald Sea, a Russian cargo ship during XXVI Indian Scientific Expedition for Antarctica (ISEA). A close correlation of magnitude of the rate of change of TEC (ROT) is established with navigational solution over three different geomagnetic regions. The ROT parameter is represented as ionospheric irregularities, and it also represents as GPS phase fluctuation. In this study, it is observed that high level of fluctuation in ROT effect the position solution. The higher fluctuation recorded in low- and high-latitude regions, and so as position errors, and sometime exceeding tolerable limits. Furthermore, the study also agree with theory of ionospheric disturbance is high in high and low geomagnetic region, whereas the mid-latitude seems to be moderate and the level of degradation of position solution in mid-latitude is comparatively lower Key words : GPS, POT, Phase fluctuation. INTRODUCTION The ionosphere is a region of charged particles: ions and electrons; that ranges from 50 km to 1000 km. These particles are produced by ionization of atmospheric gases. Furthermore, the level absorption also exit and both the process varies with solar intensity, season, and solar cycle, during intense solar flare, the solar particle produces bow shock to earth magnetic field and causes geomagnetic storms which eventually turns into ionospheric storm. The relation between magnetic and ionospheric storm is governed by Coupling Theory. With the effect of ionospheric storm, irregularities in ionosphere generated, thus the transionospheric radio waves changes their characteristics and delayed [1]. Furthermore, the state of ionosphere is not homogenous in three geomagnetic regions high, mid and low latitude. This research obtained a practical approach to study the effect of ionosphere on GPS position accuracy in a

ship journey from Antarctica (high latitude) to Goa, India (low latitude). Twenty four days of ship journey covers all region high, mid and low latitude to evaluate GPS performance. The GPS (Global Positioning System) is modern satellite based navigation tool developed by US in 1985, since then, the applications of GPS have been expanding its spectrum day to day. In addition, there are some applications, which need a high level of accuracy, precision, reliability and availability. However, when GPS signals from satellite propagate through a disturbed ionospheric medium, their characteristics in terms of amplitude or phase change depending on the level of ionospheric irregularities. There exists a correlation between ionospheric variations and the TEC derived from dual frequency GPS receivers. shows regular variation patterns in different regions. The irregular variations of the ionosphere over a particular region can be expressed by the rate of TEC (ROT). The ROT is the difference of the successive epochs in units of time [2]. In this chapter, irregular ionospheric variation has been studied at high, mid, and low latitude, as well as the effect on the GPS positioning. The effect of ionospheric irregularities as ROT on GPS position solution in equatorial anomaly region can be seen in [3]. In addition, the sudden irregular variations in the ionosphere can cause cycle slips in the GPS signal [4-6], which eventually loosing GPS services. In order to understand the overall effect of ROT, the experiment was conducted in dynamic state of ship from high to low latitude. The upcoming section discusses the experimental setup and methodology followed with result and discussion; and ended up with conclusion drawn from the experiment.
(TECU)

Latitude (degree)

Longitude (degree)

Fig.1 : Global VTEC between 10:00 and 12:00 UT.

* School of Electrical, Electronics & Computer Engineering, Newcastle University, UK, rajesh.tiwari@ncl.ac.uk ** Space Science Laboratory Barkatullah University, Bhopal. *** National Institute of Technical Teachers' Training & Research, Bhopal, India

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Journal of Engineering, Science and Management Education EXPERIMENTAL SET UP The experiment has been conducted to study ionospheric effect accuracies GPS receivers over different geomagnetic latitudes. The experiment was conducted on board of a Russian cargo ice class ship, the M. V. Emerald Sea, from Lasermenn Hills (69.06 S, 76.03 E), Antarctica on March 14, 2007 to Goa (15.56 N, 73.81 E) on April 7, 2007. A NovAtel 602 GPS antenna installed on the deck of the ship and is connected to GISTM based NovAtel 4004A GPS receiver installed in the radio room of the ship. The NovAtel 602 GPS antenna is choke ring designed used to minimize the multipath effect and the GPS receiver is operating on L1 C/A code and L2 carrier signal has 12 channels which can lock 12 satellites at a time. Fig.3 shows the ship's route from source to destination. It is clear from the figure that the ship navigated through all three geomagnetic regions. The high latitude region in the study was from 70 S to 50 S; the mid-latitude region, from 50 S to 30 S; and the low latitude region, from 30 S to 15 N. The receiver was set to log data in GPGGA-RTK, GPGST, and ISMR format. The GPGGA-RTK mode gives the position of the receiver in its current state at a frequency of 1 Hz with the number of satellites locked and HDOP. The GPGST provides the tracking status of the locked GPS satellites; this format helps in studying the L1 and L2 carrier signals. The GPGST log format is also recorded at a frequency of 1 Hz. The ISMR log is ionospheric scintillation monitoring data format, responsible for computing amplitude and phase scintillation along with TEC in 1, 30, 45, 60 average rate. This data set recorded every minute, which is good for part of this research because the ionosphere does not vary minute by minute. ISMR data format comes in binary format and is extracted to ASCII by ParISMR.exe software from NovAtel. The setup has two categories: One result is generated from the receiver itself, while other is obtained from the Kalman filter model. With the help of the Kalman filter, we calculated the updated position of the ship. The Kalman filter model is one of the most reliable and precise models for dynamic applications. The Kalman filter model computes the current state of the receiver and is compared with the states computed by the receiver itself. The difference in the position obtained from the Kalman filter and GPS receiver gives the error in the Cartesian coordinates, allowing us to predict the current state of the receiver based on the previous result. Equations (1) and (2) represent the state vector obtained from the Kalman filter and GPS receiver, respectively.

(1)
Where (X)K is the current (at i time) column matrix representing the current state of position of the receiver predicted by the Kalman filter, and Xk Yk Zk are positions in the Cartesian coordinate system.
th

(2)
Where (X)R is the current (at i time) column matrix representing the current state of position of the receiver predicted by receiver, and XR YR ZR are positions in the Cartesian coordinate system. The difference in the state vector obtained from the Kalman filter and receiver in real time gives the error in the Cartesian coordinate system, as mentioned in equation .
th

(3)

The Cartesian system is transformed into local frames of reference, showing easting and northing error. Furthermore, the collective error of easting and northing error converted to horizontal error, and is considered 2-dimensional error parameter in this study. The most important analysis in this experiment is the estimating position of the ship in real time domain using Kalman filter is discussed in next section.

Fig 2. Experimental setup on board of a cargo ship, blue dense cloud represents ionosphere, as it is high latitude, the aurora is the most prominent activity in ionosphere.

Fig.3 The ship route from Lasermenn Hills, Antarctica, to Goa, India.

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Journal of Engineering, Science and Management Education i. Real Time Kinematic Positioning The real kinematic position is the process of estimating the position of any object in motion. Several parameters are used to estimate the position solution and any error in any one parameter can degrade the position solution. In this study the position of the ship is estimated in real time using constant velocity and a constant acceleration model. In marine navigation, the precise position solution is very important. The GPS provides a position solution that does not degrade over time. However, the case may be different when there is an ionospheric storm. In real time kinematics, it is difficult to obtain a high precision position solution, because the stochastic properties of the system depend on factors, such as the ship's dynamic status and physical environment (e.g., rolling and pitching of ship on a rough sea), which are not always fixed. Therefore, efficient Kalman filtering algorithms have become an attractive research topic. The positional error of the ship in real time is computed in three steps. In the first step, the positional solution is computed by the inbuilt software of receiver; in the second step, the position solution is estimated using constant velocity and constant acceleration model and filtering out the noises using Kalman filter. (The algorithm of the second stage is described in the next paragraph.) In the third stage, the position error is computed by taking the difference of the estimated positional solution from model with Kalman filter and position solution obtained from GPS in Cartesian coordinate frame. A constant velocity and acceleration model is used here to measure the update of positions, because it is assumed that the velocity of ship cannot be changed within a minute. A 9dimensional state vector contains three components of position (x, y, z), three components of velocity (vx, vy, vz) and three components of acceleration (ax, ay, az). The average of velocity and acceleration for a minute is taken as a constant velocity and acceleration of the model for the next epoch, and each epoch is recorded at 1 sec. explains the real kinematic state of the ship; consider the ship is at point P at time t1 after one minute of initial stage the ship reached point Q. The velocity and acceleration obtained for 1 min are averaged to have one constant value which would be used to compute the position of the ship in next epoch therefore our first computation is at 1min 1 sec. When the ship reached to point R then the model will take the average value of velocity and acceleration obtained between points Q and R. The probable noises are filtered out through the Kalman filter model. ii. Kalman Filter The filter estimates the process state at some time and then obtains feedback in the form of (noisy) measurements. The mathematical process of Kalman filter falls into two groups: Time Update equations and Measurement Update equations. The time update equations are responsible for projecting forward solution by using the current state and error covariance estimates to obtain the a priori estimates for the next time. The second is the measurement update equations, and it is responsible for the feedback (i.e. for incorporating a new measurement into the priori estimate to obtain an improved a posteriori estimate). shows the algorithm of the Kalman filter.

Xk = [ x, vx, ax, y, vy, ay, z, vz, az]T k

Where x, y, z are position vector, are velocity vector, are acceleration vector. The updated state vector of ship is computed based on the previous sate of the ship as mentioned in equations (5)-(7).

(5)

(6)

(7)

With the help of transition matrix Fx the relation between previous and current states obtained in above equations can be represented in following matrix.

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Journal of Engineering, Science and Management Education S range of latitude on 18 March 2007. From 00:00 UT to 16:00 UT, the absolute position error is below 4 m, but between 17:00 UT and 24 :00 UT, sudden enhancement in absolute position error is recorded and reaches 10 m. The lower panel of Fig. 7 also shows that until 16:00 UT, the HDOP was lower than 2 and demonstrates good geometry, but after 17:00 UT, the HDOP increased until it reached 8, which represents poor geometry. At that time, the number of satellites locked in the upper panel decreased and reached the minimum number of 4 and 5 between 17:00 UT and 24:00 UT. To understand the reason for the poor geometry and position error at high latitudes, ROT is plotted in fig.8 . The ROT measured, an estimate of the PRN locked at the time of events, has a low level of GPS accuracy. To correlate the positional error with ionospheric irregularities, ROT was analysed. When we compare position error and HDOP with ROT, we found that at the time of lower HDOP and smooth position variation, ROT fluctuation was also low. But between 17: 00 UT and 24:00 UT, when the ROT fluctuation was very high (up to + or -3), the position error increased to 10 m, and HDOP was at its maximum value. The GPS phase fluctuations (dTEC/dt), which is defined as the rate of TEC change in TEC units per minute, is the parameter used in various studies to represent disturbances in the ionosphere [7-9], and it shows a one-to-one relationship with positional accuracy [10]. The intensity of TEC fluctuations increases during geomagnetic activity. Kintener [10] illustrated that the GPS-derived TEC and all-sky camera (ASC) images with increases of TEC by ~10 X 1016 electrons m2 occurring simultaneously with auroral light in ASC images. Fluctuations in TEC have adverse effects on the navigational uses of GPS. For example, the ranging error introduced by a 10 TEC unit difference in ionospheric propagation is 1.63 m, and with an HDOP value of 2.3, this corresponds to a positional error of 3.8 m [10]. The limited spatial extent and fast temporal behaviour of the ionospheric variability at high latitudes suggest that differentially aided or augmented GPS systems will not be able to correct for these error sources [4]. Positional Error Result II Mid Latitude

(8) Where; t = time step between tk-1 and tk. On the flip side, there is some additional processing and it is considered as Wk matrix depicted in .

(9) Where qx, qy, qz are the process noise variance were assumed due to troposphere, multipath and stream of the sea (rolling and pitching). RESULT AND DISCUSSION Positional Error Result I High Latitude Fig. 6 shows the absolute positional error of GPS horizontal error on 18 March 2007. The figure represents the 2D error in local frames of reference submerged into one as absolute value for 24 h. The 3D figure represents the range of latitude and absolute horizontal error in the time domain. It can be observed in the figure that the ship was within the 680 S to 660

Fig. 6 Absolute Horizontal Position Error on 18 March 2007.

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Journal of Engineering, Science and Management Education ionospheric delays [12]. During SED, navigation accuracy is expected to be degraded [13]. The source of such enhanced plasma is ultimately the sunlit equatorial ionosphere, where electric fields drive plasma upward. This is basically an afternoon-evening event. There could a night time event as well, depending on the intensity of the auroral storm. If the intensity is very high, then the aurora arc may expand equatorward and cover much of mid-latitude sector.

Fig.7 The first panel represents the number of satellites locked, and the lower panel represents HDOP.

Fig.9 Absolute positional error on 25 March 2007.

Fig.8 Rate of Change of TEC Variation on 18 March 2007.

The absolute positional error obtained on 25 March 2007 is shown in fig.9. , when the ship was in a mid-latitude region. The figure illustrates that the absolute positional error is very significant; for the whole day, the absolute position error was less than 2 m. The HDOP was also very good, as shown in the lower panel of , with a minimum number of satellites in view (6), shown in the upper panel. The HDOP depends on the total number of satellite view to GPS receiver, and various studies show that the HDOP from GPS constellation over geomagnetic mid-latitude regions remains good all the time unless the satellite loses its lock due to intense ionospheric conditions [11]. The advantage of this is in better accuracy and reliability at mid latitudes. The surface area of the earth over mid latitudes has more exposure, as compared to high latitudes. Therefore, the major source of navigational error in mid latitudes depends on the ionosphere, where the ionosphere is considered to be the least variable and undisturbed and is usually free from horizontal magnetic field controlling electron motions in the equatorial anomaly. That is the reason we have smooth ROT in Fig.11 . However, SED is often observed at mid latitudes. When this happens, TEC plumes are recorded, which may be considered range error or

Fig.10 The first panel represents the number of satellites locked, and the lower panel represents HDOP on 25 March 2007.

Fig.11 Rate of Change of TEC variation on 25 March 2007.

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Journal of Engineering, Science and Management Education Positional Error Result III Low Latitude Fig. 1 shows the global snapshot of VTEC for 2 h. From the figure, it is clear that the behaviour of the ionosphere at low latitudes is comparatively showing greater fluctuations as compare to mid and high latitude. The absolute horizontal positional error for 1 April 2007 is shown in fig.12 ; on this day, the absolute position error was more than 4 m. The HDOP for low latitudes is also good [11], but due to severe ionospheric behaviour, the navigational result was degraded. The upper panel of fig.13 shows that during this event, the minimum number of satellites locked was 5, but most of the time, the number was 7. With a sufficient number of locked satellites, the HDOP value was below 2 for the whole day, as shown in the lower panel. But if we look into the ROT of 24 h on 01 April 2007, it becomes clear that the variation in ROT, which was greater than 1 for the whole day, was responsible for the degradation of position. The effect of ROT on positioning at low latitudes is studied and can be found in [3]. The authors found that at the equatorial region, due to the occurrence of intense small-scale irregularities in the ionospheric F2 layer, fast variations in TEC developed and thereby caused degradation in the positioning accuracy and quality of GPS performance. Growth in the level of geomagnetic activity is accompanied by growth in total intensity of TEC variations. These variations are observed due to fluctuations in TEC in the ionosphere. The results in [3] show that during quiet ionospheric conditions, the horizontal error was less than 2 m, but the situation becomes adverse during ionospheric disturbances, when the maximum error reached 5-6 m. The irregular TEC component makes a substantial contribution in this case. The amplitude of random TEC variations with a period from a few minutes to several hours in conditions of geomagnetic disturbances can make up as much as 50% of the background TEC value. Ionospheric irregularities occurring during sunset in the equatorial region are cases of depleted plasma of scale sizes varying from cm to km [14]. Ionospheric irregularities can cause degradation in GPS navigational accuracy and limitations in GPS system tracking performance [15, 5]. Statistical Study at High, Mid, and Low Latitudes

Fig13. The first panel represents the number of satellites locked, and the lower panel represents HDOP on 01 April 2007.

Fig.14 Rate of Change of TEC variation on 01 April 2007.

To study the probability of absolute position error at different latitudes, we computed the statistics of the total number of events at high, mid, and low latitudes. The first panel of fig.15 shows the probability of the occurrence of absolute error at high latitudes, while second and third show the probability at mid and low latitudes.

Fig. 12 Absolute positional error on 01 April 2007.

Fig.15 Statistical study of absolute position error over three regions.

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Journal of Engineering, Science and Management Education As mentioned in the Result section, we observed that the total error is maximum at low latitudes, moderate at high latitudes, and low at mid latitudes. At low latitudes, maximum error up to 5 m was recorded, while at mid latitudes, the error was very low, up to 2 m. The cumulative probability distribution functions for absolute position error at high, mid, and low latitudes are plotted in fig.16. High latitudes had a 99% probability of absolute position error of 4 m. They also had a 50% probability of horizontal error of 1.75 m, as shown in the upper panel. Similarly, mid latitudes had a 99% probability of absolute position error of below 2 m, as shown in the second panel, which is very low, as compared to that for high latitudes. The third panel shows the cumulative probability distribution functions for absolute position error at low latitudes, with a 99% probability of absolute position error greater than 4 m and a 50% probability of horizontal error less than 2 m (lower right panel). These plots clearly signify the effect of latitude variation on the precise position of a GPS receiver. ionospheric irregularities, the parameter ROT is considered for representing ionospheric irregularities [7-9]. The experiment observed ionospheric disturbances in low- and high-latitude regions is high comparatively, and users experience degraded position errors, often exceeding tolerable limits, especially due to the GPS phase fluctuation. The result of the present work shows that there is a direct correlation between the ROT and GPS accuracy at different latitudes, but the level of intensity is different, leading to different levels of accuracy. The absolute positional error is higher at low and high latitudes, as compared to mid latitudes. The probability of the number of occurrences of error events is comparatively high at low latitudes, moderate at high latitudes, and minimum at mid latitudes. The intensity of ROT fluctuation is less at low latitudes, as compared to mid and high latitudes. The effect of the equatorial anomaly and high fluctuation in ROT also degrades the navigational solution [3]. Whereas, the mid-latitude ionospheric region has less effect affect. Therefore, it recommended having wide band analysis of similar experiment can be pursued to implement in GPS software receiver can be used to mitigate the ionospheric error in real time. REFERENCES 1. 2. K. Davies. Ionospheric Radio, IEE Electromagnetic Waves Series, Peter Peregrinus Ltd., 1990, 277-284. A. Krankowski, I.I. Shagimuratov, L.W. Baran, I.I. Ephishov, N.J. Tepenitzyna. The occurrence of polar cap patches in TEC fluctuations detected using GPS measurement in southern hemisphere, Adv. in Space Res., 38, 2601-2609, 2006. R. Tiwari, S. Bhatacharya, P. K. Purohit, A. K. Gwal. Effect of TEC variation on GPS precise point at low latitude, Open Atmos. Sci. J., 2, 276-287, 2008. S. Skone, M. E. Cannon. Ionospheric effects on differential GPS applications during auroral substorm activity, ISPRS J. of Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing, 54, 279288, 1999. S.H. Skone. The impact of magnetic storm on GPS receiver performance, J. Geodesy, 75 & 2, 457-468, 2001. S. Skone, K. Kundsen, M. de Jong. Limitation in GPS receiver tracking performance under ionospheric scintillation conditions, Phy. & Chem. of Earth, 26, 613-621, 2001. S. Basu, E. Weber, T. Bullett, M. Keskinen, E. MacKenzie, P.Doherty, R. Sheehan, H. Kuenzler, P. Ning, J. Bongiolatti, Characteristics of plasma structuring in the cusp/cleft region at Svalbard, Radio Sci., 33(6), 1885-1899, 1998. J. Aarons, B. Lin. Development of high latitude phase fluctuations during the January 10, April 10-11, and May 15, 1997 magnetic storms, J. of Atmos. & Terrestrial Phy., 61, 309-327, 1999.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Fig.16. The probability of the occurrence of position error over the geomagnetic region.

7.

CONCLUSION The ionospheric irregularities produce extra time delay to transionospheric signal, eventually degradation GPS solution. The study developed a correlation between the magnitude of the rate of change of TEC (dTEC/dt) and real time kinematic GPS-based navigational solution in three geomagnetic regions: high, mid and low latitude. In regards to

8.

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Journal of Engineering, Science and Management Education 9. J. Aarons, B. Lin, M. Mendillo, K. Liou, M. Codrescu. "Global Positioning System phase fluctuations and ultraviolet images from the Polar satellite," Jour. Geophys. Res., 105(A3), 52015213, 2000. P.M. Kintner. A Beginner's Guide to Space Weather and GPS, Lectnre notes, Updated Fehruary 21, 2008. G. Lachapalle. ENG0625, Lectnre notes, Uuiversity of Calgary, 2007. S. Skone, K. Knudsen. "Impact of ionospheric scintillation on SBAS performance," Proceeding ION GPS2000., Salt Lake City, UT, September 2000. A. Coster, M.K. Colerico, J.C. Foster, W. Rideout, F. Rich. "Longitude sector comparison ofstorm enhanced density," Geophysical Res. Letter, 34, 1-5, 2007. 14. M.C. Kelley. "Equatorial spread F: some Recent results and outstanding problems," J. Atmos. Phy., 47, 745752, 1985.

10. 11. 12.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Author, Rajesh Tiwari wish to acknowledge Department of Physics, Barkatullah University, Bhopal, India, for providing this opportunity to conduct this experiment in 2007 (previous to his current place of working), he also wishes to acknowledge NCAOR, Goa, Ministry of Earth Science, Govt. of India for financial support and opportunity to participate in XXVI Indian Scientific Expedition for Antarctica. n

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