Global vTECmaps and instrumental DCB estimation based on combined GPS and TOPEX/Jason measurements

BIBBO I.; BRUNINI C.; AZPILICUETA F.; JANCHES D.

Workshop; CEDAR Workshop; 2010

National Science Foundation, EE.UU.

Free electrons existing in the terrestrial ionosphere severely affect the transmission of radio waves coming from satellites orbiting around the Earth. That effect, unwanted in most cases, is the main source of information for ionospheric research. In this contribution we present a method for combining GPS and TOPEX/Jason observation in a consistent model approximation, which exploits the complementary benefits of both satellite techniques. Basically, TOPEX/Jason observations are used to improve the vertical total electron content interpolation (vTEC) in open ocean regions and to improve the calibration of the GPS satellite and receiver instrumental biases (DCB),  while GPS observations are used to achieve high temporal resolution of  vTEC variability.