Modeling of GPS ionospheric scintillation using nonlinear regression technique

Abstract

The propagated wireless signals along Global Positioning System (GPS) link suffer ionospheric scintillations due to the ionospheric electron density irregularities. The GPS ionospheric scintillation and Total Electron Content (TEC) Monitor (GISTM) receiver is established at UTeM, Malaysia (Latitude 2° 14′ N, Longitude 102° 16′ E) to monitor ionospheric scintillations during the 24th solar maximum from September 2013 to August 2014. The GPS ionospheric scintillations are measured for the dual frequency L1 (1.57542 GHz) and L2C (1.2276 GHz). The mathematical model of the ionospheric scintillation is statistically estimated based on the collected experimental data using the nonlinear regression (NLR) technique. The scintillation index S4(L2C) is estimated as mathematical function of S4(L1). The proposed mathematical model has been validated and achieved lowest root mean square error (RMSE) value of 0.0523 for the S4(L2C).