An enhanced Real-Time Regional Ionospheric Model using IGS Real-Time Service (IGS-RTS) products

Recently, the International Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) Service (IGS) has launched the Real-Time Service (IGS-RTS). The RTS products enable real-time precise positioning applications. For single-frequency Real-Time Precise Point Positioning (RT-PPP), ionospheric delay mitigation is a major challenge. To overcome this challenge, we developed a Real-Time Regional Ionospheric Model (RT-RIM) over Europe using the RTS satellite orbits and clock products. The model has spatial and temporal resolution of 1° × 1° and 15 minutes, respectively. Global Positioning System (GPS) observations from 60 IGS and EUREF reference stations are processed using the Bernese 5·2 PPP module in order to extract the Real-Time Vertical Electron Content (RT-VTEC). The PPP convergence time and positioning accuracy using the RTS products is estimated and compared with dual frequency PPP and single-frequency PPP obtained through the combined rapid IGS Global Ionospheric Maps (IGS-GIM) over three consecutive days under high solar activity and one of them under active geomagnetic activity. The results show that the proposed model improves PPP accuracy and convergence time under the mid-latitude region about 40%, 55% and 40% for the horizontal, height and three-dimensional (3D) components respectively in comparison with the IGS-GIM.