Janusz Walo

The article “Ionospheric scintillation characteristics over Indian region from latitudinally-aligned geodetic GPS observations” was originally published Online First without open access. After publication in volume 16, issue 3, page 2675–2691, the author decided to opt for Open Choice and to make the article an open access publication.

Ionospheric scintillations pose one of the biggest threats to Satellite-Earth communication links in the communication and navigation systems services whose occurrence characteristics could be explained through the strength of fading (amplitude scintillation index; S4) and the rapidity of the fades (decorrelation time; 𝜏0). In the present work, we analyzed the S4 index from a latitudinal array of three geodetic global positioning system (GPS) stations along the Indian longitude sector during the descending phase of the 24th solar cycle. The results show predominant occurrences of scintillations during the post-sunset and nighttime periods indicating the level of scintillations close to equatorial, beyond anomaly crest, and near mid-latitude locations. The strong amplitude scintillations during 2014 and 2015 and their lowest magnitudes during 2016 and 2017 reflect the solar activity dependence of the scintillation occurrences. The directional distribution and 2-dimensional surface sky plots of the S4 index substantiate the occurrence of intense scintillation being more prevalent towards the equatorial location, whereas the weak and moderate scintillations are perceived towards the higher low latitude stations. The occurrences of intense scintillations are confirmed in high solar active years and equinox season at all stations, while the equatorial station presents relatively higher occurrences in winter followed by summer. The summer season witnessed intense occurrences even under moderate to low solar activity years (2016–2017), reflecting the post-midnight occurrences due to meridional thermospheric winds. Moreover, maximum percentage occurrences of weak scintillations in all seasons are evident towards the poleward side, far away from the anomaly crest. The amplitude scintillation frequency during the period is further compared with the solar and geomagnetic indices to substantiate the analysis drawn from the variations. The correlation coefficients between the scintillation index occurrence rate with the solar and geomagnetic in-dices at three GNSS stations provide valuable insights into the relationship between solar activity and scintillation. The results show that the strength and direction of the correlation can vary significantly depending on the specific solar index and location. Thus, emphasize further studies on scintillation occurrences for developing effective forecasting and mitigation models over the Indian low-latitude region.

At the Pieniny Klippen Belt in Poland, the novel primary reference baseline EURO5000 is required as part of the European Research project GeoMetre to both validate refractivity-compensated EDM prototypes and investigate the metrological traceability of GNSS-based distances. Since the aimed uncertainty is 1 mm at 5 km (k = 2), the design, construction, and validation must be carefully prepared to fulfil the high standards of the GeoMetre field campaigns which are planned to be carried out in May 2022. This contribution describes the main features of the EURO5000 and presents the results of the preliminary validation which includes a first comparison between the results obtained by using precise currently available EDMs as well as GNSS techniques following the standard GNSS geodetic processing algorithms, on the one hand, and the improved GNSS-Based Distance Meter (GBDM+) approach developed at UPV, on the other hand. The preliminary validation presented in this contribution also permits (1) to detect potential problems in the use of the baseline such as potential geodynamic problems, atmospheric refraction or multipath limitations, (2) to produce a set of reliable results, and (3) to pave the way for the final field comparisons between the novel EDMs and the GBDM+ approach. The result of this metrological experiment may significantly contribute to overcome the limitations of current high-precision deformation monitoring applications that require their scale to be consistent with the SI-metre within 0.1 ppm in several km.

The method of precise GNSS positioning using corrections from a network of reference stations, the so-called Network RTK, is currently the most accurate real time kinematic positioning method. The reliability of this method is largely dependent on the accuracy of determination of network ionospheric and geometric corrections (taking into account the tropospheric refraction and orbit errors). There are many indexes describing the reliability of Network RTK positioning in the aspect of the accuracy of modelling these errors. The so-called solution quality indicators are used for this purpose. They are parameters determined in the central network pre-processing which provide quantitative information regarding the predicted reliability of the positioning in an area encompassed by a network of reference stations. Unfortunately, their interpretation is hindered due to the lack of connection with basic parameters describing precise positioning quality, i.e. the correctness of the carrier phase ambiguity resolution and the accuracy of the rover position. This study presents a new approach to the design of quality indicators for the Network RTK method, based on a quantitative description of two parameters—solution accuracy and availability. The presented method is based on the existing parameters describing the probability of the correct fixing of ambiguities and the estimation of the fixed baseline solution accuracy. However, a stochastic model of observation, taking into account the accuracy of network corrections is used for these calculations. The proposed method enables a full account of all parameters affecting the reliability of positioning, which is not possible with the currently applied methods. Numerical tests of the new indicators carried out for a part of the regional reference stations network confirmed the effectiveness of this approach. The proposed indicators provide much more clear identification of the time periods for which the reliability of the solution was lower compared to the existing quality indexes which indications were unclear and inaccurate.

The article presents current issues and research work conducted in the Department of Geodesy and Geodetic Astronomy at the Faculty of Geodesy and Cartography at Warsaw University of Technology. It contains the most important directions of research in the fields of physical geodesy, satellite measurement techniques, GNSS meteorology, geodynamic studies, electronic measurement techniques and terrain information systems.

In 2006 a gravimetric pavilion was installed inside the Geodynamic Laboratory (LG) in Książ. The pavilion was equipped with two pillars intended to serve relative and absolute gravimetric measurements. Installation of measurement platform for absolute gravity measurements inside gravimetric pavilion of LG made it possible to perform four sessions of absolute gravity measurements: two of them in 2007 (June 10-12 and Nov. 21-22), one in 2008 (Apr. 21-22) and one in 2011 (June 19-21). In 2007 the absolute measurements were performed using two FG5 ballistic gravimeters. In April 2007 the measurements were performed by Dr Makinen from Geodetic Institute of Finnish Academy of Science with application of FG5 No. 221 absolute gravimeter. In June 2007 and in the years 2008 and 2011 such gravimetric measurements were performed by the team from Department of Geodesy and Astronomical Geodesy of Warsaw University of Technology using FG5 No. 230 absolute gravimeter. Elaboration of observation sessions from both gravimeters was performed in the Department of Higher Geodesy following the procedures used in constituting of uniform gravimetric system of geodynamic polygons reference. This constituting of gravimetric system comprised inter alia application of identical models of lithospheric tides (global model by Wenzel, 1997) and ocean tides (Schwiderski, 1980) (reduction of absolute measurements with tidal signals). Observations performed during summer of 2007, autumn of 2007, and spring of 2008 and 2011 indicated existence of small changes of absolute gravity of the order of 1 Gal. Maxima of accelerations appear in the spring period, and minima in the autumn period. This effect is connected with the influence of global hydrological factors the annual amplitude of which is ca 1,5 Gal and achieve extreme values in the spring-autumn interval. Very small value of observed amplitude of gravity changes in the period of extreme variability suggests that the observed gravity changes in LG are caused only by global phenomenon. This proves high degree of „independence” of gravimetric measurement base in LG from the local environmental factors such as ground water level variations, ground humidity, impact of snow cover, etc. At this moment the instrumental environment of absolute measurements obtains particular value, especially in the case of the tiltmeters and relative the gravimeter Lacoste& Romberg (LR-648). The relative gravity measurements as performed simultaneously with absolute gravity measurements enable us to determine the local tidal ephemeredes which makes it possible to replace the global tidal modal with ocean tidal model with the more realistic, locally determined tidal parameters (the local tidal ephemeredes).