RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Network-based ionospheric gradient monitoring to support GBAS
JF NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation
JO NAVIGATION
FD Institute of Navigation
SP 135
OP 156
DO 10.1002/navi.411
VO 68
IS 1
A1 Caamano, Maria
A1 Juan, José Miguel
A1 Felux, Michael
A1 Gerbeth, Daniel
A1 González-Casado, Guillermo
A1 Sanz, Jaume
YR 2021
UL https://navi.ion.org/content/68/1/135.abstract
AB Large ionospheric gradients acting between a Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS) reference station and an aircraft on approach could lead to hazardous position errors if undetected. Current GBAS stations provide solutions against this threat that rely on the use of “worst-case” conservative threat models, which could limit the availability of the system.This paper presents a methodology capable of detecting ionospheric gradients in real time and estimating the actual threat model parameters based on a network of dual-frequency and multi-constellation GNSS monitoring stations. First, we evaluate the performance of our algorithm with synthetic gradients that are simulated over the nominal measurements recorded by a reference network in Alaska. Afterwards, we also assess it with one real ionospheric gradient measured by the same network.Results with both simulated gradients and a real gradient show the potential to support GBAS by detecting and estimating these gradients instead of always using “worst-case” models.