High Accuracy Navigation under Scintillation Conditions

Project Information

NAVSCIN

Grant agreement ID: 797461

DOI

10.3030/797461

Project closed

EC signature date 15 March 2018

Start date 2 July 2018

End date 1 July 2021

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 185 288,40

EU contribution

€ 185 288,40

Coordinated by

UNIVERSITAT POLITECNICA DE CATALUNYA
Spain

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NAVSCIN (High Accuracy Navigation under Scintillation Conditions)

Reporting period: 2020-07-02 to 2021-07-01

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The main goal of NAVSCIN has been the development of an improved strategy to mitigate scintillation –a particular type of space weather perturbation– tailored for satellite-based navigation techniques, in close collaboration with users and manufacturers of these technologies. Indeed, once the scintillation effect is correctly detected and mitigated, the availability and accuracy of the five billion devices using Global Navigation Satellite Systems around the world, will dramatically improve. The project has implemented a set of coordinated actions among its different partners that maximize international collaboration between universities, research centres and industry, in different European and Asian countries: First, NAVSCIN has improved the understanding regarding the physical processes resulting in the formation of scintillation, and consequently to identify the drivers in the interplanetary medium, the magnetosphere and the atmosphere. Second, the impact of scintillation on space-based navigation users has been characterised: mainly Ground and Aircraft Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS, GBAS) and high-accuracy navigation techniques (Precise Point Positioning). Third, a set of NAVSCIN algorithms has been developed to support the real-time identification, correction and/or mitigation of scintillation in GNSS receivers. Finally, NAVSCIN has worked systematically with potential users to assess the functionality, reliability and efficiency of the proposed solution, paving the way to its systematic exploitation and to its sustainable operation. Overall, the European competitiveness has been potentiated throughout the project with the exploitation of the research results, ultimately giving highlevel EU employment and maintaining the European status quo of high‐level‐knowledge countries.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Member of Marie Curie Alumni Association since 08/05/2018
Initial communication at the start of the Action and website
Participation in conferences, workshops and other events with a presentation or/and a booth within the BELS+ project, MGA association and the partners UPC, NAVIS, INDRA

Peer-reviewed Journals:
1. Nguyen VK, Rovira‐Garcia A, Juan JM, Sanz J, González‐Casado G, La‐The V, Tung TH (2019) "Measuring phase scintillation at different frequencies with conventional GNSS receivers operating at 1 Hz". Journal of Geodesy 93(10):1985-2001. DOI 10.1007/s00190-019-01297-z
2. Aragon-Angel A, Zürn M, and Rovira-Garcia A, (2019) "Galileo Ionospheric Correction Algorithm: An Optimization Study of NeQuick-G". Radio Science, 54, 1156-1169. DOI 10.1029/2019RS006875
3. Rovira‐Garcia A., Ibánez D., Orus Perez R., Juan J.M. Sanz J., González‐Casado G., (2020) "Assessing the quality of ionospheric models through GNSS positioning error: Methodology and Results" GPS Solutions, 24:4. DOI 10.1007/s10291-019-0918-z
4. Li M, Nie W, Xu T, Rovira-Garcia A, Fang Z, Xu G (2020) "Helmert Variance Component Estimation for Multi-GNSS Relative Positioning." Sensors 2020,20, 669. DOI 10.3390/s20030669
5. Rovira-Garcia A, Juan JM (2020) “Special Issue on GNSS Data Processing and Navigation”. Sensors 20 (15), 4119. DOI 10.3390/s20154119
6. Timoté CC, Juan JM, Sanz J, González-Casado G, Rovira-García A, Escudero M (2020) "Impact of medium-scale traveling ionospheric disturbances on network real-time kinematic services: CATNET study case". Journal of Space Weather Space Climate 10(29). DOI 10.1051/swsc/2020030
7. Alonso MT, Ferigato C, Ibáñez-Segura D, Perrotta D, Rovira-Garcia A, Sordini E (2021) “Analysis of ‘Pre-Fit’ Datasets of gLAB by Robust Statistical Techniques” Stats 4(2):400-418. DOI 10.3390/stats4020026
8. Rovira-Garcia A, Juan JM, Sanz, J, Gonzalez-Casado G, Ventura, J, Cacciapuoti, L, Schoenemann, E (2021) “Removing day-boundary discontinuities on GNSS clock estimates: methodology and results”. GPS Solutions 25, 35. DOI 10.1007/s10291-021-01085-3
9. Aragon-Angel A, Rovira-Garcia A, Arcediano-Garrido E, Ibáñez-Segura D (2021) “Galileo Ionospheric Correction Algorithm Integration into the Open-Source GNSS Laboratory Tool Suite (gLAB)”. Remote Sensing 13(2):191. DOI 10.3390/rs13020191

International Conferences:
1. Rovira‐Garcia A, Juan JM, Sanz J, González‐Casado G, Escudero M "The NAVSCIN Project: Towards High-Accuracy Navigation under Scintillation". Proceedings of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) Working Week 2019 Geospatial information for a smarter life and environmental resilience. Hanoi, Vietnam, April 22–26, 2019. ISBN 978-87-92853-90-5
2. Juan JM, Timoté CC, Sanz J, González‐Casado G, Rovira‐Garcia A “Specification of the TID impact on Network RTK services comparing performance degradation data with TechTIDE results” First TechTIDE Users Workshop, Neustrelitz, Germany, May 2019.
3. Rovira‐Garcia A, González‐Casado G, Juan JM, Sanz J, Orús R "Climatology of High and Low Latitude Scintillation in the Last Solar Cycle by Means of the Geodetic Detrending Technique”. Proceedings of the 2020 International Technical Meeting of The Institute of Navigation, San Diego, California, January 2020, pp. 920-933. DOI 10.33012/2020.17187.

Invited Talks:
1. Fast-PPP and the relevance of accurate Ionospheric modelling, TREASURE Final Conference, October 21, 2020
2. The Geodetic Detrending Technique: Enabling High-Accuracy Navigation Under Scintillation, 2020 IEEE International Conference on Wireless for Space and Extreme Environments (WiSEE) - Space Weather (SW), October 12, 2020

Other International Collaborations:
1. Chair of Session A4: GNSS Remote Sensing, Atmospheric Science and Space Applications in the 2019 International Technical Meeting of the US Institute of Navigation organized in Reston, Virginia (USA) January 2019
2. Guest editor of the peer-reviewed journal Sensors from 01/07/2019 to 31/12/2019 in the Special Issue GNSS Data Processing and Navigation
3. Chair of Session B2: Precise GNSS Positioning in the 2020 International Technical Meeting of the US Institute of Navigation organised in San Diego, California (USA) January 2020
4. Associate Editor of the peer-reviewed journal IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing from 15/06/2020 to 14/06/2024

Student Supervision:
1. Undergratuate Thesis on GNSS based positioning using a two-layer ionospheric model: performance analysis.
2. Masther Thesis (co-supervised by UPC and Indra) on the impact of Scintillation on Ground Based Augmentation System (GBAS) prototype.
3. Three PhD Thesis supervision inclusing industrial PhD and co-tutella agreeement for double-degree.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

We have improved the understanding regarding the physical processes resulting in the formation of scintillation, and consequently to identify the drivers in the interplanetary medium, the magnetosphere and the atmosphere.
NAVSCIN has contributed to tdentify and characterise the impact of scintillation on space-based navigation users: mainly Ground and Aircraft Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS, GBAS) and high-accuracy navigation techniques.
A methodology has been developed suitable to support, for the first time, the real-time identification, correction and/or mitigation of scintillation in GNSS receivers.
Work systematically with potential users to assess the functionality, reliability and efficiency of NAVSCIN proposed solution, paving the way to its systematic exploitation and to its sustainable operation.

Cycle-slips on actual GNSS carrier-phase measurements caused by ionospheric scintillation.