A Study of the Impact of Heterogeneous Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Constellations on Global Ionospheric Tomography Inversions
The development of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites has provided the possibility to improve the accuracy of wide-area global navigation satellite system (GNSS) tomography; however, the existing LEO constellations were not designed to consider the effect on the improvement of the accuracy of GNSS com...
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MDPI AG
2025-02-01
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| author | Yanwen Liu Xingliang Huo Ting Zhang Yunbin Yuan |
| author_facet | Yanwen Liu Xingliang Huo Ting Zhang Yunbin Yuan |
| author_sort | Yanwen Liu |
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| description | The development of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites has provided the possibility to improve the accuracy of wide-area global navigation satellite system (GNSS) tomography; however, the existing LEO constellations were not designed to consider the effect on the improvement of the accuracy of GNSS computerized ionospheric tomography (CIT). In this paper, we use simulated observations to reconstruct a global higher-resolution three-dimensional (3D) ionospheric electron density (IED) model with a voxel-based model to explore the combined effects of heterogeneous LEO constellations on CIT. The results are as follows: (1) The number of grids crossed by rays increases after adding LEO satellites at different altitudes, while in the altitude interval of 100–300 km, the gain percentage increases with the number of LEO satellites at all four altitudes (300 km, 500 km, 800 km, and 1000 km). (2) The root mean square (RMS) gain percentages are positive after adding LEO satellite observations at 300 km and 500 km altitudes. Whereas, after adding LEO satellite observations at 800 km and 1000 km altitude, the RMS gain percentages from 100–300 km are negative. (3) From the overall percentage gain, the percentage RMS gain of all six plans exceeds 25%, with planB (96/96/60/30 LEO satellites at 300/500/800/1000 km, respectively) having the smallest percentage RMS gain of 27.31% and planA (192/96/60/30 LEO satellites at 300/500/800/1000 km, respectively) having the largest percentage RMS gain of 32.42%. Considering the LEO satellite launch maintenance cost for the enhancement effect of heterogeneous LEO constellations on CIT, this paper demonstrates that planA can effectively improve the accuracy of the 3D IED model. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-2341b0e1bb33448893a0ca64735a745c |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2073-4433 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-02-01 |
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| series | Atmosphere |
| spelling | doaj-art-2341b0e1bb33448893a0ca64735a745c2025-08-20T02:42:41ZengMDPI AGAtmosphere2073-44332025-02-0116323710.3390/atmos16030237A Study of the Impact of Heterogeneous Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Constellations on Global Ionospheric Tomography InversionsYanwen Liu0Xingliang Huo1Ting Zhang2Yunbin Yuan3State Key Laboratory of Precision Geodesy, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430077, ChinaUniversity of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Precision Geodesy, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430077, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Precision Geodesy, Innovation Academy for Precision Measurement Science and Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430077, ChinaThe development of low earth orbit (LEO) satellites has provided the possibility to improve the accuracy of wide-area global navigation satellite system (GNSS) tomography; however, the existing LEO constellations were not designed to consider the effect on the improvement of the accuracy of GNSS computerized ionospheric tomography (CIT). In this paper, we use simulated observations to reconstruct a global higher-resolution three-dimensional (3D) ionospheric electron density (IED) model with a voxel-based model to explore the combined effects of heterogeneous LEO constellations on CIT. The results are as follows: (1) The number of grids crossed by rays increases after adding LEO satellites at different altitudes, while in the altitude interval of 100–300 km, the gain percentage increases with the number of LEO satellites at all four altitudes (300 km, 500 km, 800 km, and 1000 km). (2) The root mean square (RMS) gain percentages are positive after adding LEO satellite observations at 300 km and 500 km altitudes. Whereas, after adding LEO satellite observations at 800 km and 1000 km altitude, the RMS gain percentages from 100–300 km are negative. (3) From the overall percentage gain, the percentage RMS gain of all six plans exceeds 25%, with planB (96/96/60/30 LEO satellites at 300/500/800/1000 km, respectively) having the smallest percentage RMS gain of 27.31% and planA (192/96/60/30 LEO satellites at 300/500/800/1000 km, respectively) having the largest percentage RMS gain of 32.42%. Considering the LEO satellite launch maintenance cost for the enhancement effect of heterogeneous LEO constellations on CIT, this paper demonstrates that planA can effectively improve the accuracy of the 3D IED model.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/16/3/237computerized ionospheric tomography (CIT)global navigation satellite system (GNSS)low earth orbit (LEO)ionospheric electron density (IED) |
| spellingShingle | Yanwen Liu Xingliang Huo Ting Zhang Yunbin Yuan A Study of the Impact of Heterogeneous Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Constellations on Global Ionospheric Tomography Inversions Atmosphere computerized ionospheric tomography (CIT) global navigation satellite system (GNSS) low earth orbit (LEO) ionospheric electron density (IED) |
| title | A Study of the Impact of Heterogeneous Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Constellations on Global Ionospheric Tomography Inversions |
| title_full | A Study of the Impact of Heterogeneous Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Constellations on Global Ionospheric Tomography Inversions |
| title_fullStr | A Study of the Impact of Heterogeneous Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Constellations on Global Ionospheric Tomography Inversions |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Study of the Impact of Heterogeneous Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Constellations on Global Ionospheric Tomography Inversions |
| title_short | A Study of the Impact of Heterogeneous Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Constellations on Global Ionospheric Tomography Inversions |
| title_sort | study of the impact of heterogeneous low earth orbit leo constellations on global ionospheric tomography inversions |
| topic | computerized ionospheric tomography (CIT) global navigation satellite system (GNSS) low earth orbit (LEO) ionospheric electron density (IED) |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/16/3/237 |
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