Simulation and tracking algorithm evaluation for scintillation signals on LEO satellites traveling inside the ionosphere

This paper first presents simulation results using a physics-based, data-driven simulator for the scintillation signals observed on a LEO platform under two different scenarios, where the scintillation signal is received on the zenith-looking precise orbit determination (POD) antenna or received on the limb-scanning radio occultation (RO) antenna. The simulation results showed different characteristics of scintillation between the two scenarios. The simulation data of these two scenarios were then used to evaluate an adaptive Kalman filter (AKF)-based algorithm against a conventional PLL of different integration times and bandwidths. The AKF algorithm applies the receiver oscillator noise modeling approach to model the phase scintillation effects. The evaluation results from both simulation scenarios showed the outperformance of the AKF algorithm over the conventional PLL in robustness and tracking accuracy in terms of cycle slips and RMSE phase error.