Estimating ionospheric delay using kriging: 2. Impact on satellite-based augmentation system availability

Abstract

An augmentation of the Global Positioning System, the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) broadcasts, at each node of an ionospheric grid, an estimate of the vertical ionospheric delay and an integrity bound on the vertical delay error. To date, these quantities have been determined from a planar fit of slant delay measurements, projected to vertical using an obliquity factor specified by the standard thin shell model of the ionosphere. In a future WAAS upgrade (WAAS Follow-On Release 3), however, they will be calculated using an established, geo-statistical estimation technique known as kriging that generally provides higher estimate accuracy than planar fit estimation. This paper analyzes the impact of kriging on system availability. In a preliminary assessment, kriging is found to produce improvements in availability of up to 15%. Copyright 2011 by the American Geophysical Union.