TOTAL ELECTRON CONTENT ESTIMATION AND ANALYSIS OVER THE NIGERIAN GLOBAL NAVIGATION SATELLITE SYSTEM PERMANENT REFERENCE NETWORK

📄 Project Abstract

In the last decades, knowledge about the ionosphere has grown considerably thanks to the use of GNSS measurements, and in turn the GNSS have highly benefited from this improved knowledge. This Dissertation studied the TEC value for the Nigerian GNSS Permanent Reference Network (NIGNET) over a period of four and a half years (January 2010 to June 2014). The TEC over the NIGNET stations were estimated using two prominent data sources viz. NIGNET CORS observed data in RINEX format, and Global Ionospheric Maps (GIMs) in IONEX format. Annual TEC time series were generated using TEC values from both data sources. The NIGNET CORS-derived TEC results were validated with the GIM-derived TEC (GTEC). Various effects on TEC values were studied such as (diurnal, season, spatial, magnetic storms and solar eclipse, and solar activity). In general the TEC reveals higher values in day time with peak occurring between 13:00 and 14:00 hours. The TEC is lower in the early hours of the day and at night tim...