Location of Ionospheric Irregularities in Extended GNSS-RO Measurements Using Back Propagation Method

Besides providing electron density profiles (EDP), GNSS Radio Occultation (GNSS-RO) measurements allow monitoring the frequency and the areas where ionospheric scintillations occur. In this work, RO measurements composing an experimental data set are processed with the back propagation (BP) method to estimate the location of sporadic E-clouds and equatorial plasma bubbles (EPB). The data set includes non-conventional measurements tracked up to 600 km (generally around 80 km), covering F-region heights, shortly before MetOp-A was decommissioned. Results indicate the combination of extended occultations and the BP method is promising for monitoring the occurrence and characterizing ionospheric irregularities in the F-region and the E-region.