ABSTRACT
In addition to an overall quasi-periodic 24 hour cycle, the ionosphere features many irregular disturbances. The detailed structure and dynamical evolution of the ionosphere continues to be one of the largest unpredictable factors in GNSS measurements. Across local area networks, however, the total electron content on the line of sight between the stations of a network and a given satellite is highly correlated between the stations due to the proximity of the signal rays as they propagate through the ionosphere.
In this paper we consider local area networks of 4 to 50 stations with baselines of the order of 10 to 100 kilometers. Across these networks, we characterize the ionosphere around the piercing points in terms of the average total electron content and spatial corrections to first and higher order.