Ionospheric scintillation threats to GNSS in polar regions: The DemoGRAPE case study in Antarctica

Abstract

This paper addresses the design and implementation of an Ionospheric Scintillation Monitoring Receiver based on the Software Defined Radio paradigm. The monitoring platform exploits a digital data grabber and a GNSS fully software receiver, which grants a high level of flexibility for the processing strategy and the storage of raw samples of the signals in case of meaningful scintillation events. Such an implementation approach yields valuable advantages in critical areas, such as polar regions, where resources are limited and installation or maintenance and replacement of GNSS receivers may be critical. The paper describes the successful installations of the platforms in two Antarctic stations, providing results at the same quality level of professional GNSS receivers used for ionospheric scintillation monitoring.