Radio Science, Volume 30, Number 6, Pages 1869-1874, November-December 1995

Passive detection of sporadic E using GPS phase

measurements

David S. Coco,ThomasL. GaussiranII, and ClaytonCoker

AppliedResearchLaboratories,The Universityof Texasat Austin

Abstract. A passivesporadicE detectiontechniquebasedon a Global PositioningSystem

(GPS) receivingsystemhas beendeveloped and testedin a midlatitudeenvironment.
This systemdetectsthe small-scale total electroncontent(TEC) variationsbelievedto
be producedby electrondensitystructuresassociated with sporadicE. The currentGPS
detectiontechniquewasableto detectionosonde-detected sporadicE conditionsfor 73% of
the casesat high-elevationlook anglesin a set of midlatitudesummerobservations.Several
approaches havebeenidentifiedthat may significantly improvethis detectionratio. These
approaches includereducingGPS phasemultipath,implementingtime and spaceaveraging,
andinvestigating the useof high-speed GPS TEC measurements. This techniqueprovidesa
basicsporadicE detectionfunctionalityfor applications wherean ionosonde is not available.
It alsoprovidescomplementary ionosphericinformationin regionsoutsidethe ionosonde
viewingarea for applicationswherean ionosonde is available.

Introduction integratedtotal electroncontent(TEC) of the iono-

sphere. GPS TEC measurementshave been used
Sporadic E has historicallybeen detectedfrom over the past decade in a variety of applications
ionogramtraces which are returns from vertically and environments
[Klobucharet al., 1985;Lanyi and
transmitted, sweptfrequencypulsesin the 1-30 MHz Roth,1988;Costeret al., 1993; Wilsonet al., 1993].
range[Hunsucker, 1962]. The G PS pseudo-range observations can be used
1991;SmithandMatsushita,
to produceabsolute(unbiased)TEC measurements
Although this technique producesan accurate in-
dication of overhead sporadic E under most con- with accuracylevelsof rr -• I TECU (whereI TECU
ditions, it is often desirable to know whether spo- = 1016 e/m2) [Sardon et al., 1994;Klobuchar and
radic E is presentin the regionsoutsideof the over- Basu, 1993; Coco et al., 1991; Bishop et al., 1985]
head regionbut within the field of view of a ground for data rates of about I Hz. However, GPS phase
station. In addition, there are certain communica- observations canproviderelative (biased)TEC mea-
tion applicationswhich prohibit the use of an ac- surements at much higher levelsof relative accuracy
tive transmitter. These factors lead us to investigate (a -• 0.01 TECU). This bias, which is simply an
unknown constant in the TEC measurement that
the possibilityof detectingsporadicE by using sig-
nalsfrom Global PositioningSystem(GPS) satellites changeswhen a receiver loseslock on the satellite
[Holmann-Wellenhof et al., 1992]trackedwitha pas- signal, doesnot need to be known if one is only in-
sive receiver. terested in changesin the TEC rather than the ab-
solute value. The small-scalechangesin thesebiased
GPS satellites transmit two L band frequencies
GPS TEC measurementshave been investigated as
that can be combinedto produce a measureof the a means to detect sporadic E in a midlatitude envi-
ronment.

Several caveatsshouldbe noted at this point. This

Copyright1995by the AmericanGeophysical
Union.
GPS sporadic E detection technique is based on a
Paper number 95RS02453. statistical correlation between the sporadic E condi-
004s-•04 / oa/ 95RS-02453
$0S.00 tions, as detected by an ionosonde,and the TEC
1869
1870 COCO ET AL.: SPORADIC E DETECTION
fluctuations measured by G PS. It is important to
note that the ionosondeobservationsdo not provide
an a•tual map of the electron density structures in
the regions sampled by GPS but provide an indi-
rect indication of the presenceof these structures.
We hypothesize that these electron density struc-
tures, which are related to the ionosonde detected
sporadic E conditions, will produce fluctuations in
the GPS TEC measurements. If this is true, then
in order for this technique to be practical, these E
region TEC fluctuations must be distinguishedfrom
F region(and intermediatelayer) TEC fluctuations.
We recognizethat these assumptionswill not hold in
all ionosphericenvironments,especiallythose where
the F region has significantsmall-scalefluctuations.
In a recent set of observationsthis G PS sporadic
E technique was able to detect sporadic E conditions
for 73% of the casesat high-elevationlook angles
(greater than 70ø) in a midlatitude set of summer
observationsusing a standard GPS receivingsystem
and a relatively simpledetectionalgorithm. Because
one of the m•n limitations of this technique is the
phase multipath error in the biased TEC measure-
ment, this sporadic E detection rate may be im-
proved significantlyby implementingmultipath mit-
igation techniquesthat are currently under investi-
gationin the GPS community[Axelradet al., 1994]. were continuousor flaggedotherwise[Cocoet al.,
If the phasemultipath can be reduced,then this may 1993].The biasedTEC wascalculated
improvethe reliability of this passivetechniqueof de- data by differencing the two phase measurements
tecting sporadicE and other anomalousionospheric and scalingthe outputto unitsof TECU [Hofmann-
conditions.
Observations
These observationswere conducted during three
months of the summer of 1994 in Austin, Texas
(30.4øN,262.3øE),usingdual-frequency, phasemea-
surementsfrom a geodeticqualityGPS receiver(Ash-
tech Z-12) and ionogramsfrom a digital ionosonde
(KEL Aerospace).Ionogramswere recordedat 15-
min intervals and then visually inspectedto identify
55 sporadic E "events." These events were defined
as time periods(0.5-3 hours) when the foes value
was above 7 MHz throughout the entire time period
[SmithandMatsushita,1962].A corresponding
num-
ber of control events were identified for times when
sporadicE wasclearlyabsent(foEs lessthan 4 MHz)
for the entire period. The majority of the selected
events were from the local night period. The event
time periods were selectedso that the control events
coveredthe same GPS satellite viewing geometry as
USING GPS PHASE MEASUREMENTS
the correspondingsporadicE events. Since the G PS
satellites repeat their orbital tracks once each side-
real day, the same viewing geometry occurs at the
same time each day with an approximate 4-min-per-
day offset. This observational condition is impor-
tant becausethe phasemultipath errors are strongly
dependent upon the satellite viewing geometry. It
shouldbe noted that the ionosondebasicallydetects
sporadic E conditions nearly overhead the station
(greater than 40ø). It is possiblethat sporadicE
conditions could be outside the viewing angle of the
ionosonde but could still be visible to the G PS re-
ceiver. This aspect is discussedfurther in the discus-
sion section below.
The G PS receivercollecteddata continuouslydur-
ing the observationsusing a laboratory rooftop an-
tenna site and a data collection interval of 30 s. This
data is not from an optimum location in terms of
multipath considerations; however, it was decided
that the long time span of data available from the
station outweighedmultipath considerations.There
were typically eight or more GPS satellitessimulta-
neously in view during the observations,and each
satellite remained in view for 4-6 hours at a time.
The GPS data were processedthrough a cycle slip
correctionprogram to ensurethat all the phasedata
fromthe GPS
Wellenhofet al., 1992]. This biasedTEC measure-
ment representsthe integrated number of electrons
alongthe station-satellite path with an unknowncon-
stant offset.
The biased TEC measurementschangeas a func-
tion of time due to the slowlychangingviewingangle
and the actual spatial and temporal variations of the
TEC in the ionosphere. The data were filtered us-
ing a third-order Butterworth high-passfilter with an
cutoff frequency correspondingto 10 min. This fil-
tering removesthe slowvariationsof the TEC, which
are due to viewing angle changesand diurnal changes
in the ionosphere, and leaves the rapid variations,
which were hypothesizedto be associatedwith spo-
radic E conditions. The filter designand the cutoff
frequency were selectedusing an semiempiricalap-
proach. A comparisonof the sporadic E detection
percentagesfrom several different cutoff frequencies
in the 4-30-min range showedthat the 10 min value
gave optimum results. After removingfilter initial-
 COCO ET AL.' SPORADIC E DETECTION USING GPS PHASE MEASUREMENTS 1871

40 l--
to generate detection statistics for all elevation an-
SporadicE gleswhileminimizingthe effectsof multipath. In this
comparisoneachindividual err, observationfrom the
sporadicE populationwaspairedwith a correspond-
,oi ing err, observationfrom the controlpopulation. The
0
observations werepaired so that they had the same
0 0.01 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.05 0.06 0.07 0.08 0.1 elevationand azimuth anglesbut were taken from
401 , , • ,
I different days. (Phase multipath dependson both
3øi
, Control the elevation and azimuth angle due to reflections
from nearbystructures.)This approachensuresthat
2o
t the two observations
ror contributions.
will have similarmultipath er-
,o•
0• l'[r, ri ,• After the data were paired, the sporadicE de-
o o.o, o.o• o.o• o.o• o.o•o.• 'o.;•
tection ratio N,/Nt was calculatedusingthe same
(•q (TEcu) 15ø elevation angle bins as before. Ne is the num-
Figure 1. The top histogram showsthe distribu- ber of caseswhen err,(sporadicE) is greater than
tion of err, valuesderived from TEC measurements err,(control),and Nt is the total numberof cases.A
during the sporadicE time periods,while the lower Ne/Nt valueof 0.50wouldbe expectedif the sporadic
histogramis from non-sporadicE periods. E andcontrolpopulations hadidenticalerr, distribu-
tions. The calculatedNe/Nt valuesrangefrom 0.63
to 0.73 with the valuesgenerallyincreasingwith el-
ization effects, the standard deviations of the filtered evation angle. This detection ratio representsthe
TEC values were calculated over 20-min time peri- fraction of observationsfrom the sporadicE popu-
ods. This parameter, labeled the sporadic E detec- lation that could be identified as sporadicE when
tion parameter,err,, wasusedto distinguishbetween the effectof the multipath contributionis mitigated
the sporadicE and control events. Initial investiga- by pairing the sporadic E and control observations.
tions showedthat the err, valuesdependedon both This impliesthat the techniquewasable to identify
the elevation angle of the observationand the spo- 73% of the sporadicE casesfor high-elevation look
radic E conditions. The elevation angle dependence angleswith a somewhatsmallerpercentageat lower-
is most likely due to the effectsof phase multipath, elevation angles.
which is known to increaseat lower elevationangles.
The at, histogramsfor the sporadicE and control
event casesare shown in Figure I for observations
with elevation anglesgreater than 55ø, where multi-
path effectsare smallest. It is clear that the sporadic
E valuesare spreadout over a muchwider rangethan
0.07
Control

Sporad
EI
the control values.
,•, 0.05

Because these two distributions are clearly non-

Gaussian, a comparison of the means of these two [•,.•_.,
0.04
populations would not be appropriate. To avoid 0 0.03
this problem, a comparisonof the median and up-
per/lowerquartilelevelsfor eachpopulationwasper- 0.02

formed. To isolate the elevation angle effects, the

0.01
data were separated into 15ø elevation angle bins.
The resultsof this comparisonare shownin Figure 2.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
The separationof the sporadicE and control popula-
Midpointof ElevationAngleBin (deg)
tions are statistically significantat the high-elevation
anglesbut not at the low-elevationangles.
Figure 2. Median valuesof err, as a functionof
A paired observation comparison was also per- elevation angle. The error bars indicate the upper
formed on the sporadic E and control populations and lower quartiles of the distribution.
1872 COCO ET AL.: SPORADIC E DETECTION USING GPS PHASE MEASUREMENTS

Discussion isolatedsporadicE structuresthat were not detected

by the ionosondebut did affect the GPS observa-
tions. These population contamination effectswould
Sporadic E is producedby thin structuresof elec- reduce the true separation of the two distributions
tron density enhancementsin the altitude range be- and lower the sporadic E detection ratio.
tween90 and 130 km [Smithand Matsushita,1962;
Whitehead,1970, 1989]. Thesestructurestypically Another more fundamental limitation to this type
extend several hundred kilometers horizontally but of observation is related to the sporadic E struc-
only a few kilometers in the vertical direction. The tures themselves. The underlying assumptionis that
structures move through the backgroundionosphere all sporadic E events are associatedwith structures
with a typical horizontalvelocityof about 150 m/s, which increasethe a E8 values. The a E8 parame-
which is comparable to the velocity of the E region ter, however, is only sensitiveto a limited range of
intercept of the GPS line of sight. There are also structures, dependingon their size, velocity, and the
smaller irregularities within the larger sporadic E magnitude of their density enhancementsand gradi-
structures. Given this physical picture of sporadic ents. If the structure is outside this range, then the
E, it was hypothesized that there would be signif- a r• value will not increase. This limitation could
icant variation in the integrated TEC as the G PS be avoided by performing an set of observationsin
line of sight passesacrossthe edgesof these discrete which the structures themselves are detected rather
structures. than the sporadic E condition. This could be accom-
plishedusing an incoherentscatter radar to map the
A typical value for the integrated TEC of a spo-
E regionstructures[Miller and Smith,1975;Math-
radicE layerisontheorderof 1x 10-2 TECU [Math-
ewset al., 1993]while the GPS systemis measuring
ewset al., 1993],whichis roughlyequivalentto the the TEC variations. A direct comparisonof the ac-
precision of an overhead GPS TEC measurement. If
tual structures and the TEC variations would allow
the GPS line of sight were to passacrossthe edgesof
one to develop a more sophisticated sporadic E de-
severalsporadicE structuresof this magnitude, then
tection parameter which would be more successfulin
a distinctive signature might be evident in the TEC
detecting sporadic E conditions.
measurements. This implies that it might be possi-
ble to detect sporadic E TEC variations using GPS There are several approachesthat can be taken to
if the appropriate detection algorithm were identi- improve the sporadic E detection ratio based on the
fied. However, it was unknown whether these spo- results of these observations. One approach would
radic E TEC variations would be dominated by F be to reduce the GPS system noise contribution to
region TEC variations,sincethe bulk of the electron the a z• parameter. The control curve in Figure 2
density is contained in the F region rather than the is composedof noise contributions from the GPS re-
E region for a typical midlatitude ionosphere. The ceiver, phase multipath, and ionosphericTEC vari-
results of these observationsimply that the short- ations from non-sporadic E conditions. It has been
timescalesporadic E TEC variations are larger than shown in experiments at Applied ResearchLabora-
the nominal F region variations, at least for certain tories,The Universityof Texasat Austin (ARL:UT)
ionosphericconditions, that is, midlatitude summer that the G PS receiver noise makes only a small con-
near the minimum of the solar cycle. tributionto this curve(approximately0.002TECU).
However, it is not well understood whether the re-
There are severalpotential limitations to this type
maining noise is due mainly to multipath or TEC
of observation that should be pointed out. First, it
variations.
is very likely that the sporadicE and controlpopula-
tions were not identified perfectly from the ionosonde Results from a recent multipath mitigation exper-
data. Because the ionosondeonly provided a sin- iment at ARL:UT suggestthat multipath makes a
gle measureof sporadicE conditionsoverhead(ele- larger contribution than the TEC variations from
vation angle greater than 40ø) once every 15 min, non-sporadic E conditions, and that the multipath
it is possible that sporadic E conditions were not contribution can be reduced significantly with ap-
present throughout the entire GPS viewing region propriate multipath mitigation techniques. In this
(greaterthan 10ø) during this time. For the same experiment, when the data from an experimental
reasons,the control population could have contained GPS antenna, placed in a very low-multipath en-
 COCO ET AL.: SPORADIC E DETECTION USING GPS PHASE MEASUREMENTS 1873

vironment (slightly below ground level in an open variations may improve our capability of detecting
field), was comparedto data from a standard an- sporadic E structures.
tenna on a nearby laboratory rooftop, the low mul-
tipath aE, values were a factor of 2 - 5 smaller than
Conclusions
those from the rooftop environment. Phase multi-
path may be able to be mitigated by other means A passive sporadic E detection technique based
also. Axelradet al. [1994]report that multipathcan on a GPS receiving system has been developedand
be significantlyreducedby modelingthe multipath tested in a midlatitude environment. This system
signature using the signal-to-noisevalue measured detects the small-scaleTEC variations produced by
by the receiver and subtracting this model from the sporadic E electron density structures. The current
phase measurements. GPS detection techniquewas able to detect sporadic
A secondapproach for improving the detectionra- E conditionsfor 73% of the casesat high-elevation
tio would be to use time and spaceaveragingon the look anglesin a set of midlatitude summerobserva-
aE, observations.The GPS techniqueprovidesan tions. The detection ratio for this technique will vary
averageof 10 independenta•, observationsduring in different ionosphericenvironmentsdue to the dif-
each I-hour time frame, when observationsabove 10ø ferent relative contributions of the E and F regionsto
elevation are used. Since the sporadic E events typ- the TEC fluctuations, multipath, and other factors.
ically have a correlation time of about 1 hour and Several approacheshave been identified that may
a correlation distance of several hundred kilometers
significantlyimprovethis detectionratio. These ap-
[Smithand Matsushita,1962],there may be many proachesincludereducingGPS phasemultipath, im-
a•, observationsfor a singlecorrelatedevent. If all plementingtime and spaceaveraging,and investigat-
of the a•, observationsfor a given time frame and ing the use of high-speedGPS TEC measurements.
ionosphericregion are combined(simple averaging
This technique provides a basic sporadic E detection
may not be the optimal method),this may providea
functionality for applications where an ionosondeis
more reliable indication of the sporadic E conditions
not available. It also provides complementary iono-
during this time frame for a given region.
spheric information in regionsoutside the ionosonde
A third approachwouldbe to investigatethe corre- viewing area for applications where an ionosondeis
lation of smaller-scaleTEC variations and sporadic E available.
structures. A number of studies have shown a corre-
lation between sporadic E and amplitude scintillation
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