GPStation-6 employment for GNSS TEC monitoring in SIRIUS project

Abstract

HF communications have proved to be a quick and reliable solution for encrypted data transmissions in scenarios where other infrastructure is damaged or inexistent. However, the behavior of the ionosphere has to be predicted in order to model a suitable radio link and overcome the errors introduced during ionospheric propagation. As a partner in the SIRIUS project, the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca has acquired, installed and employed the NovAtel GPStation-6, a GNSS ionospheric scintillation and TEC monitor receiver to estimate the electronic density and to be used in the validation of the ionospheric model developed within the project. This paper aims at presenting the capabilities of the GNSS receiver, its installation, the calibration process, and TEC measurements.